


you and me

by fireforaheart



Series: as long as i have you [2]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-06-26 02:00:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15653460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fireforaheart/pseuds/fireforaheart
Summary: “I just don’t know if I can even look at him.” Zayn keeps his eyes locked on the TV. “He hates me.”“He doesn’t hate you.” Liam tells him.“You didn’t see his face when I broke up with him.” Zayn shakes his head. “That was the last time I ever saw him.”set one year after the events of without you i’ll never make it out alive





	you and me

**Author's Note:**

> not to be overly emotional or sentimental but now that it’s 2018.. this fic journey has been 4 years in the making!!! i want to thank all of you who have been here! 
> 
> i’m so sad that it’s actually come to an end. this has been my baby and for a while i was beginning to think i lost my muse. i had already written a good 1/4 of this fic while i was writing part 1, and i went through a lot of high ups and downs. I really wanted to push this out and get it finished before I started grad school, and i’m so happy i could finally get this finished product out to you all ♡
> 
> number 1 shoutout to katelyn for truly never letting ziall die. the mvp. 
> 
> some quick story info: let’s say this takes place on an entirely different earth. there are references to the avengers in both parts, but there isn't any major crossover or big references to any films or tv shows. 
> 
> also: i have a list of warnings in the end notes that may contain spoilers!

* * *

#  1 YEAR LATER

* * *

Zayn thought high school was stressful, but college on its own was something else. He barely balanced his time in high school, but college is that level of intensity times ten. Zayn got his own apartment after graduating, and throughout his entire first year he’d been barely on time for his classes, but he made it. He survived the first year, and kept his grades up, all while keeping up with the _Spidey_ stuff.

He didn’t want anyone else knowing his secret, especially with what happened with Niall, but sometimes it’s hard to keep secrets from people who end up questioning your every action. Harry found out, Louis was able to see through it, but luckily, Liam’s still not quite there yet.

Louis comes up with way better excuses than Zayn ever would have, and it’s good that they don’t go to the same university because Zayn has a feeling that after a while, Louis would’ve gotten tired of covering up for him.

Since the school year is over, Zayn’s moving on to his summer internship at Stark Industries. After the Green Goblin saga, Styles Industries went under, and Zayn hasn’t seen Harry since he left to travel Europe.

It’s also been a year since he’s seen Niall. In person, at least. There’s not a day goes by where Zayn doesn’t hear something about him on TV, or on the radio on the occasion he gets a ride in Louis’ beat up car.

Zayn has purposely, and so carefully made sure to leave parties that Niall showed up to whenever he was in town, and their friends had made him go to. Niall was in Los Angeles for most of the past year, and came back to visit during the holidays.

Spider-Man duties always gave him an excuse to dip out early.

Niall’s been on tour for the last few months. They’d broken up right after graduation and everything that had happened, Zayn assumed maybe it was for the best. Niall opted out of going to Empire State, since music was his real passion. Zayn is glad Niall’s out there, somewhere, doing what he’s wanted to do.

He also can’t help but think about what it’d be like, going to college together. They talked about Empire State University, and at one point even considered moving in together. Zayn can’t help but feel a little wounded that Niall didn’t tell him about his plans, but it was sudden. They weren’t talking anymore. Graduation happened.

Zayn hasn’t kept up with the tour, since Niall is only an opening act at the moment. He has an EP out, and an album coming out in the Fall, according to Louis. The tour has only now moved on to North America. Liam, Louis, and Eleanor have been hinting the last couple of days that Niall is going to be playing at Madison Square Garden next week. Which is a huge deal, Zayn knows, but he hasn’t talked to Niall in so long.

The breakup wasn’t pretty. It was awful. Zayn regrets the way everything happened and thinks about it every day.

Zayn being Spider-Man had cost him almost everything. If he’d learned how to use his powers, his uncle would still be alive. Zayn thought it was for the best that he distance himself from Niall.

During their last year of high school alone, Niall almost died four times— two of them being before Niall ever even knew his secret.

The crime in the city has been light lately. There’s been a few robberies here and there, and now Zayn’s swinging by the very place his ex boyfriend is going to be.

He’s on the top of a nearby building, sitting with his feet hanging over the edge. Zayn takes off his mask, and breathes in the night air. Zayn watches as the marquee changes, and after a few minutes he finally sees it.

Shawn Mendes - with special guest Niall Horan - May 25th - _Sold Out_

Niall’s face isn’t even on the marquee, but Zayn’s still tempted to take his camera out of his bag and snap a photo.

But he doesn’t know Niall like that anymore.

Zayn calls it a night, and pulls his mask back over his face. It’s starting to get warmer in the city now, and Zayn enters his apartment through his tiny little window through the fire escape.

The light in Zayn’s room has a timer, going on at whatever time at night so Liam thinks he’s home. Zayn also installed a lock on his door just in case, so Liam won’t come barging in and Zayn’s got his Spider-Man suit on.

Ideally, Zayn would’ve had an apartment by himself, but Zayn wouldn’t have been able to afford a place this decent without Liam. He quickly changes out of his spidey suit, and grabs whatever’s clean and throws it on. Zayn usually got off his internship at 5, and knows Liam doesn’t get home from work until 8, so there’s a gap of time that it’s plausible that Zayn got home before Liam, explaining why his bedroom light is on.

It’s just after 10, and during this time Liam’s usually still up. Zayn unlocks the door to his bedroom, and walks into their moderately sized living room.

“Hey,” Liam says, not looking up from the TV. “There’s leftovers in the fridge if you want it.”

Zayn shuffles his way into the kitchen, and heats up the leftovers. Zayn always has snacks in his bag when he’s out on Spidey business, but he really hasn’t eaten since lunch. Plus, Liam always ordered the best takeout.

Once the leftovers are done heating up, he grabs a bottle of water and plops down on the couch right next to Liam. Zayn vaguely recognizes the show Liam’s watching, and Zayn just goes with it. Most nights they watch TV in silence, while Zayn munches on whatever leftovers Liam ordered.  

“So you’re coming next week, right?” Liam asks, and turns down the volume of the TV.

“Oh, that Mendes guy’s concert?” Zayn replies, trying to avoid any mention of Niall’s name at all.

“You know what I mean,” Liam sighs. “He’d want you there.”

“I know.” Zayn swallows his last bite of food. “I just don’t know if I can even look at him.” Zayn keeps his eyes locked on the TV. “He hates me.”

“He doesn’t hate you.” Liam tells him.

“You didn’t see his face when I broke up with him.” Zayn shakes his head. “That was the last time I ever saw him.”

“Well...” Liam sighs again. “Your ticket and pass are on the bulletin board, if you decide to go. We’re all going to be in a suite.”

“I’ll let you know.” Zayn replies.

Liam’s still got the TV on, and Zayn decides to call it a night and head back to his room. Now that he’s back on his summer schedule, Zayn usually takes a nap for a few hours, and goes back out again around 2am to make another sweep of the city before going back home.

Zayn flops over onto his bed and closes his eyes. Zayn’s usually so busy with his internship and Spider-Man business that it’s a good distraction. He doesn’t have to sit around and think about his ex, and whether or not he should go to the concert.  

He can never seem to fall asleep easily, either. It’s been an issue. Zayn spent a lot of time over the past year barely sleeping. Zayn could probably count the amount of hours of real sleep he’s actually gotten, but that would be concerning to mention to anyone. Louis’ constantly worrying about Zayn’s health and he tries to shrug it off.

One of the main problems is that Zayn doesn’t actually have insurance. The best part of his enhanced powers is that he heals quickly and rarely gets sick, but Zayn thinks he really needs to talk to someone who isn’t his friend or his ex boyfriend. He just doesn’t know how a therapist would react if he told them that he spends his free time swinging around the city in a bright red and blue suit.

\--

Zayn’s lucky that he even gets paid for his internship at all, given the fact that he mostly assists in research and copies a lot of notes. On some occasions he even gets to leave the lab and get everyone’s coffee or lunch, and he can breathe a bit of fresh air before being stuck in a lab.

There’s a bit of commotion going on at Stark Industries today, since apparently Mr. Stark himself is dropping by the building today. Zayn’s not really into all the fuss, but the bosses let him out a whole hour early.

It’s not an ideal situation for Zayn. He needs the hours, and then he has to go send as many pictures to the _Bugle_ he can for an extra buck. The _Bugle_ had offered him a position as a staff photographer, but Zayn turned it down. He didn’t have the extra time to go to event galas or openings, and preferred freelance.

Zayn loosens the buttons on his dress shirt, and leaves the building. It’s mid-May, but Zayn can already feel the summer weather approaching.

He heads back home and changes into his Spidey outfit. Zayn doesn’t really sense a lot happening today, but he makes his usual sweep of the city as always. Zayn can’t really avoid Madison Square Garden, but if he has to pass it, he will.

Zayn stops a few people from getting mugged on the street, and even helps a little girl get her kitten that was stuck in a tree. He doesn’t usually do that kind of stuff, but Zayn has to admit he’s a sucker for small kittens.

He stops by Louis’ place right after, texting ahead to make sure Eleanor isn’t home. Louis’ been pretty cool about his secret ever since he found out, and lets Zayn hang out for a few hours when he needs a quick break or something to eat.

Finals didn’t end too long ago, and the whole gang is busy working full time. Louis and Eleanor are at work, and Zayn just hangs out in their living room, still in his full spidey suit. He takes his mask off, and lays down on the couch. Zayn can’t really nap, even though he knows Eleanor gets off work later.

“You can’t lay on the couch in your full Spider-Man costume.” Louis shouts, somewhere from the front door, Zayn assumes.

“No one is here.” Zayn huffs.

“I’m here.” Louis replies back harshly. “Whatever, at least you’ve got clothes on.” Louis sighs, and sits down on the couch by Zayn’s feet.

“Shitty day at work?” Zayn asks.

“Zayn, it’s retail.” Louis says, shoving Zayn’s feet over. “Every day is shitty.”

“Good point.” Zayn laughs.

Zayn lets Louis rant and tell him about his day. Louis usually works most mornings, and later on at night he goes to his part-time at a local theatre that puts on small productions. Louis knows Zayn’s probably only half listening, but Zayn listens to all of Louis’ wild stories, big hand gestures and all.

Louis eventually gets tired, and goes to his room to take a nap before his other job. He reminds Zayn that Eleanor would be back in two hours, and Zayn’s always welcome to stay.

He props his feet up on the couch again, holding his mask in one hand.

—

The week seems to go by extremely slow. There’s no big villain terrorizing the city, and often Zayn finds himself with more free time than he thought. It leaves him too much time with his own thoughts, thinking more and more about the past year.

Zayn finds himself going back to his old home in Queens. He visits his sisters, and always remembers to bring organic eggs home for his aunt. Zayn’s always suspected that his aunt knew, but the two of them just had this unspoken agreement. It’s probably better that way, just in case his sisters ever found out.

His old bedroom is now Safaa’s. Doniya moved out not long after Zayn did, which meant his sisters no longer had to share a room. Zayn sits on the floor of Safaa’s room, alone. She’s not home yet, probably somewhere out with Waliyha. The walls have changed since this used to be Zayn’s room. Before he moved out, it was cluttered with Star Wars, Nasa, and The X Files posters and a few of his old skateboards.

Before he leaves, he finds the box of his lego death star that he never got around to building. Zayn takes it with him, in hopes that he’ll have time to put it together later, just to get his mind off things.

He gets home just around eight, and Liam’s not home yet. Zayn already did a few rounds of the city earlier, and he will before bed tonight, but for now, he’s got a bit of down time.

Zayn opens the box, and the first thing he sees is a crumpled up note. He doesn’t remember putting it inside the box, and he tries his best to straighten it out. It’s still crumpled looking, but Zayn can make out the handwriting on the note. It’s Niall’s. The neat, handwritten note was probably left behind, and forgotten somewhere when Zayn moved out. The note reads: ‘You fell asleep, and I didn’t want to wake you up :( I’ll see you tomorrow.’ There’s also a little heart drawn under it, and Zayn holds the note against his chest.

He puts the note in his drawer, making sure he won’t lose it. Zayn sighs, and turns back his attention to his box of legos, and proceeds to dump the contents out onto his bedroom floor. The whole reason why he’d brought it back to his apartment was to get his mind off of Niall, and now the note had brought all those feelings and memories he’s been trying to forget about for the past year.

Zayn sorts out the pieces, slowly putting them together one by one. He doesn’t have to put it all together in one night, and guesses it’ll probably take him a while to build something that has over 3,000 pieces. Zayn puts his headphones on, and completely focuses on the lego set. He looks at the instructions every once in a while, but for the most part he doesn’t really need them.

The lego death star is a pretty good distraction. He gets halfway finished with it before deciding to finally call it quits, and make his rounds for the night before going to bed. Liam just got home not too long ago, and offered to help, but Zayn said no, since it was something he had to do himself.

Zayn locks the door to his room, and changes into his suit. He usually goes out the window, and no one ever notices in a city this big. He’s had his fair share of going up and down firescapes, climbing down buildings, and it doesn’t even phase Zayn anymore.

The city is never quiet, but Zayn doesn’t know what other word to use to describe it after the events of the Goblin. There’s still robberies, break-ins, and other various small crimes that happen every day, but Zayn can’t help but feel like something is about to happen again.

He gets the feeling that he’s being followed. Not all the time, but if Zayn’s making rounds after work, or sometimes during his night patrol. The feeling never lasts for that long, and it’s only when he’s on the ground. Zayn thinks he’s probably losing them every time he uses his web shooters instead of climbing up the side of a building.

Zayn’s careful about going back to his apartment. He takes several rounds around the neighborhood, and after he finally feels like he’s no longer being followed, Zayn considers it safe to go home. He climbs back up to his window, and quickly changes out of his suit. It’s already gotten late, and he has to be up for work in a few hours. It’s nice that he doesn’t have to worry about homework, but Zayn wouldn’t having something else to focus on instead of being left alone with his thoughts.

He checks the clock on his desk, and the time reads 3:30am. Zayn sighs, and moves his body so he’s facing the wall. He stares at it for a while, trying to clear his thoughts, and after what feels like forever, he finally closes his eyes and falls asleep.

\--

On the day of the concert, Zayn’s on his way to the Garden, but something stops him. It’s already 6:40, and he’s running late. While he’s walking, he notices a few odd-looking guys following a group of girls who Zayn assumes are heading to the concert, like himself.

He can sense something is about to happen, and ducks into the closes alleyway to change into his suit. As soon as he goes back onto the street, Zayn can spot one of the guys holding up a knife and he hears them demanding they give them their wallets.

Zayn shoots his web out, getting the knife out of the guy’s hand. He tells the girls to run, and they do.

Zayn dodges every punch thrown at him, and he punches right back. They’re taller than Zayn, but that’s never been an issue.

Zayn gets a few more good punches in before webbing them to the lamppost nearby. Zayn can hear the sirens approach, and decides that it’s time to head out.

He swings to the top of a nearby building and changes back into his regular clothes. Zayn checks his phone, and notices that it’s already past 7.

If Zayn hurries now, he can still make the end of Niall’s opening set. He lowers himself down back onto street level, and runs to the venue. Thanks to Niall’s pass, Zayn’s able to get himself past most of the line that was still outside the arena.

Someone directs him to one of the suites, and Zayn sees everyone out watching the show. Liam, Louis, Eleanor, and Niall’s family are all there. Zayn wonders for a brief moment if Niall had ever told them what really happened between them.

“You’re just in time.” Louis says, clapping him on the back. “Glad you could make it.”

“Yeah,” Zayn replies, breathless. “Me too.”

Zayn directs his attention to the stage, and sees Niall in person for the first time since that night. That’s when he notices-- Niall’s using the guitar that Zayn had saved up so many of the _Bugle’s_ paychecks for.

“Hi everyone,” Niall greets the crowd. “This is my last song tonight.” He pauses, and the crowd screams. Liam and Louis make a point to scream even louder. “Since I’m from New York, I wrote this song for someone. I hope they’re here tonight. This song’s called ‘This Town.’”

Zayn feels Louis nudge him in his side, hard. Even though no one’s even looking at him, Zayn feels almost exposed, given the fact that Niall’s family is here, and Zayn’s a little on edge.

He listens to the lyrics, and hangs onto every word that Niall sings. Zayn always knew, that somehow, someway, Niall was going to make it. He may be opening now, but give it another few months and Niall might be having his own show here.

The song ends, and Zayn automatically begins clapping. Liam, Louis, and Eleanor all start screaming Niall’s name. The crowd seems to get even louder as the night goes on.

“Thank you, New York, I love you.” Niall waves at the crowd, and they erupt in screams again. Zayn’s tries his best to cover his ears, but because of his super-hearing it doesn’t really help that much.

Niall leaves the stage, and the crowd’s screams seem to fade out.

Louis tells him there’s about 40 more minutes until the main act comes on, and Zayn starts conversation with Eleanor while Liam and Louis get some food.

“So are you liking the Bugle?” Zayn asks, changing up the small talk.

“I like it, except...” Eleanor trails off.

“Jameson?” Zayn laughs. “I’m just glad he doesn’t want me to come in anymore, and all I have to do is email my photos in.”

“Aren’t you lucky.” Eleanor replies.

“Excuse me for a second,” Zayn says, and exits the suite.

Zayn’s not going to leave, but he needs a few minutes to breathe. He’d just seen his ex boyfriend sing a song about _him_ on stage, Zayn needs some space to process it.

The suite level is blocked off access from the main levels, so Zayn didn’t think he’d see anyone walking around. The main act doesn’t come on for maybe 30 minutes now, so Zayn didn’t expect to see someone.

Zayn’s eyesight is crystal clear, and he notices the guy walking down the hallway is _Niall_ . Zayn almost stops breathing. Niall was wearing a hat onstage, and Zayn didn’t even notice that Niall let his hair go natural. The blonde’s completely gone. It’s been a year, and Niall’s here, walking towards him, and still looking at him like _that_.

Zayn just remembers the line in Niall’s song-- something about being still being nervous. Zayn feels almost every emotion in the book at this moment, and he feels like his heart is doing flips in his chest.

“Zayn.”

“It’s so good to see you,” Zayn finally breathes out. Zayn still can’t believe he’s here.

“I was hoping you’d come.” Niall smiles at him. “I was hoping to catch up with you. Maybe we can meet after the show, too?”

“Yeah,” Zayn nods. “I’ll be here.”

“Cool.” Niall replies. “I’m going to say hi to my family real quick, and I have to go back, but.” Niall pauses. “You look good, Zayn.”

Niall enters the suite, and Zayn almost feels first-date kind of nervous again. Zayn can’t keep replaying the way things ended in his head, and maybe if he wants to form some sort of relationship with Niall again, he’ll have to move past that.

Zayn sucks it up, and goes back into the suite. Niall’s saying hi to his family, and Zayn goes into the bathroom to prevent further embarrassing himself, but also to avoid seeing Niall on his way out. Zayn can’t leave the show, mostly because Louis would kill him, and he’s pretty sure Safaa would too if he doesn’t take a video of the song Stitches for her.

There’s a knock on the door, and it’s Louis telling him the show’s about to start again. Niall had already left again, and most of Niall’s family is sitting around the flat screen TV, while Liam, Louis, and Eleanor are out watching the show. Zayn joins them.

Zayn nods his head along to some of the songs, but he really doesn’t know most of them. It’s never really been the type of music he listens to, but it’s still enjoyable to watch music being performed live.

Towards the end of the show, they bring Niall back out onstage. The crowd seems to be confused, and Zayn exchanges a few looks between Liam, Louis, and Eleanor.

“So, before the show tonight,” Shawn explains, “I got word here backstage that Spider-Man saved a few fans on their way to the show.” He pauses, and the crowd screams. New York does love Spider-Man. “So Niall and I thought we’d pay a little tribute to Spider-Man.”

“Oh no,” Louis says, laughing. “Please don’t tell me they’re about to sing that god-awful Spider-Man song.”

“I think they are.” Zayn cringes. It’s a cute song, but Zayn probably passes by at least 10 different people a day singing this song around New York.

Louis is practically screaming the lyrics next to him, and Zayn knows he’s only doing it because he knows it annoys him. Louis’ really having the time of his life, and Zayn actually sings along. He just doesn’t let anyone catch him. Meanwhile, Louis screams louder when another concert goer tries to shush him.

It’s the last song of the concert, and Zayn braces himself for the screams of the crowd. He goes back into the en-suite bathroom, that drowns out a lot of the sound. The crowd’s excitement seems to die out quickly, and Zayn takes this as a sign that it’s safe to leave the bathroom.

Niall’s family has already left, and Liam tells him that Niall invited them all backstage to meet, or whatever. Zayn just follows along.

There’s security, or at least Zayn thinks, that leads them all to wherever it is that artists hang out after their shows. Zayn’s following behind Louis and Eleanor, and Liam’s trailing behind him.

“Hey! Over here!” Niall greets, waving them over. He’s hanging out with some guys from his backing band, and Zayn thinks they seem pretty chill. “These are my friends from high school.” Niall introduces them. “Louis, Eleanor, Liam, and Zayn.”

Liam, Louis, and Eleanor all start asking Niall’s band a bunch of questions-- much to Zayn’s dismay. He thinks they might have planned something in advance, and now Zayn’s just standing in front of Niall.

“I heard you got caught up before the show.” Niall raises an eyebrow.

“I caught your last song.” Zayn says, avoiding eye contact.

“Zayn.” Niall sighs. “Do you want to talk somewhere, like alone?” he asks.

“Uh, yeah.” Zayn nods. “That’d be great.”  
  
Niall leads him to some room down the hall--Zayn thinks it’s probably his dressing room. Niall leaves the door slightly open, and tells Zayn that they probably have to leave soon and go back on the tour bus, anyways.

“I meant what I said, earlier.” Niall tells him. “I wanted you to come tonight.”

“Niall...” Zayn can see the look on his face, and he knows. Even after a year apart, it’s like Niall’s never been gone at all.

“I’ll be on tour until August.” Niall shrugs. “I’m getting three weeks off before I have to start promo for my album.”

“That’s nice.” Zayn replies.

“The album’s already finished.” Niall turns around, and starts looking through one of his bags-- Zayn’s a bit confused. “I wanted you to hear it first, from me.” Niall turns to face Zayn again, and hands him a CD. “Just listen to it, and tell me how you feel.”

Zayn can’t even find the words to say. He’s run the scenarios in his head so many times, of what he’d say to Niall when he finally saw him again. Now, Zayn’s completely blank and can’t even string his words together to say a complete sentence.

“Hey.” Liam says, peeking his head through the doorway. “We’re heading out.”

“I’ll walk you guys out.”

Niall leads them back to the same place where they all met up, and Zayn sees there’s a lot of people running around trying to get things organized. The next show is in New Jersey, so they’re leaving tonight.

They all hug goodbye, and it’s a little bittersweet. Zayn hadn’t really been in their friend group until their senior year of high school, and they’ve all grown really close. Zayn’s a bit hesitant to give him a hug, but Louis basically pushes him into Niall’s arms.

After their final goodbyes, security escorts them out. Louis gets them all an uber, and Zayn can’t say no. Even after the events of the Goblin from last year, Louis has been really the only one knocking some sense into Zayn about his late night spidey patrols.

It’s a bit of a long ride. They’re all tired, and they’re content to ride in silence. Liam and Zayn get dropped off first, and they both wave goodbye and watch as the uber drives further away.

Zayn doesn’t really feel like talking to Liam about it yet, so he mumbles a quick goodnight and heads to his room. He’s still got Niall’s CD in his pocket, and Zayn decides to put it in his laptop.

He lays down in bed, with his laptop propped at the side so it doesn’t fall off. Zayn grabs his headphones off his desk, and plugs them into his laptop and his hand hovers over the play button.

Zayn presses play.

He has to listen to the album a few times to really take it in. Zayn had heard the one song at the concert, but he didn’t really know what to expect.

The entire album was about _Zayn_.

Zayn had always wondered during all this time if Niall moved on. Then he remembers.

_Just listen to it, and tell me how you feel._

It’s a Saturday, so Zayn doesn’t have to work at his internship today. He pretty much stayed up the whole night listening to Niall’s album on repeat. It’s 6 in the morning, and Zayn figures he can make it to New Jersey pretty quickly. The thing is, he doesn’t know where Niall’s hotel is, or his cell phone number.

Zayn makes an effort to change into a fresh pair of clothes. He doesn’t want to show up at Niall’s hotel in the same clothes from last night, so he makes a point to change into something a little nicer.

Once he brushes his teeth, he’s banging on Liam’s door to wake him up. Zayn feels really bad, obviously, but maybe Liam won’t mind this one time.

“It’s like 6 in the morning, Zayn.” Liam complains, and opens the door. “For fuck’s sake.”

“Do you have Niall’s number?” Zayn asks quickly. “Do you know what hotel he’s staying at?”

“Did you finally sort out your shit?” Liam asks, while rummaging through his bedroom for what Zayn assumes is his phone.

“Just give me the details.” Zayn groans. “I need to leave now.”

“Alright, I texted the info, go confess your love already.” Liam mumbles, and shuts the door. He is really not a morning person.

Zayn’s running on zero sleep, and he basically takes his normal Spider-Man route to get to Penn station. He’s got his backpack so he can change back into his regular clothes before he gets on a train, but for now, swinging around the city is a lot faster than taking a cab.

He hastily changes back into his regular clothes, and shoves all his spidey stuff into the special compartment of his backpack that keeps his suit hidden just in case he forgot to zip up his backpack. Zayn barely makes it in time for the train, and hopefully he doesn’t run into any delays, but he’s still got plenty of time since Niall’s not doing anything at the moment.

Zayn texted Niall, starting a basic conversation. Niall was awake since he was doing promo at a local radio station, and told Zayn he was at his hotel. Zayn didn’t explicitly say that he was going to visit him, but he has a feeling that Niall may already know.

As always, Zayn can count on New Jersey transit to be delayed. He’s already growing impatient, and it’s taking a little longer than Zayn would’ve hoped for. By the time he gets to New Jersey, it’s just before 8am and Zayn probably has to stick it out and get an uber to Niall’s hotel.

Zayn doesn’t really know the New Jersey area that well. He’d only been a few times, with Liam, Louis and Niall when they dragged him out to watch the Rangers play the Devils. Zayn also doesn’t want to take his chances being seen around in the Spidey suit, since that definitely would be a dead give away.

Zayn gets to the hotel, and he’s a bit scared to enter the lobby. His jeans have holes around the knees, and it’s probably not the best look going into a 4-star hotel. Zayn takes a chance, and decides to call Niall.

“Zayn?” Niall answers after a few rings.  
  
“Any chance you would see an old friend in the lobby of your hotel?” Zayn asks.

“You’re here?”  
  
Zayn barely hears whatever Niall says next, and the only thing Zayn can really pick up is clattering noises and what Zayn thinks could be a TV.

Niall quickly tells him a floor and room number, and hangs up. He’s probably busy, since Zayn’s visit was a bit unexpected in the first place. Zayn walks past the lobby, and heads straight for the elevators. He finds that a bit of confidence leaves less people questioning why you’re there.

Zayn has to take a few moments to hype himself up after he gets off the elevator. He’s already run through a billion scenarios in his head in the time it took him to get to New Jersey, and even though he’s had some big epic speech planned in his head, he’ll probably freeze and forget it all like last time.

He’s in front of Niall’s door now, just about to knock. Zayn’s fist is resting against the wood of the door, but he still needs a moment to put himself together.

Just as Zayn’s about to knock on the door, it opens. But it’s not Niall.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Some guy who Zayn can’t seem to put a name on, answers. “You must be Zayn. I don’t think we got the chance to meet last night.”

“Are you in Niall’s band?” Zayn asks, confused.

“It’s Shawn, actually.” The guys replies. Zayn momentarily feels like an idiot, because he just watched him in concert last night.

“Fuck, my bad.” Zayn laughs. “I didn’t really get any sleep last night, so,” Zayn trails off. As if he’s ever gotten a decent night’s sleep.

“I’ll leave you to it.” Shawn claps him on the back. “Just make sure to get him to the show on time.”

Zayn finally enters Niall’s hotel room. The curtains are drawn over the window, and the room is a bit dark except for one of the lamps. Zayn feels like Niall could be hiding somewhere, but he pops in a moment later from what Zayn assumes is the bathroom.  
  
“Zayn.” Niall says, stopping right where he is. “You’re really here.”  
  
“Yeah, I’m really here.” Zayn smiles. “Last night you told me to listen to your album.” Zayn takes a deep breath, and continues. “I couldn’t stop listening to it last night.”  
  
“Zayn.” Niall starts again, but Zayn shakes his head.

“You meant it, right?” Zayn asks. “All of it?”  
  
“Of course I meant it, Zayn.” Niall says, looking at him with those heart-wrenching eyes. “I _mean_ every word of it. I still do.”

“I haven’t stopped thinking about you since you left,” Zayn confesses. “The way things ended...” Zayn trails off.

“Just tell me.” Niall says, moving closer to Zayn. They’re inches apart now, and Zayn wants to reach his hand out, and touch Niall’s cheek. But he doesn’t.

“I love you.” The words leave Zayn’s mouth so easily. Zayn’s entire constant has always been knowing that this is what he truly feels, and he’s in one hundred percent.

Niall’s face falls forward, and he rests his head against Zayn’s shoulder. Zayn’s hand moves over the back of Niall’s neck, and they stand there for a while, both of them not saying anything.

A whole year. No calls, no texts, not even getting a glimpse of each other in person. Things were different for Zayn, in a way. The TV ads, magazines, and various posters he saw throughout Niall’s budding career.  
  
“Can we lay down for a while?” Niall mumbles into Zayn’s shoulder. It’s still early, and Zayn wouldn’t mind laying down for a bit, and giving Niall more time to think about what just happened.

The bed is just a few steps behind Zayn, and Niall breaks apart from him and moves over to the other side. Zayn lays down beside the small table and the lampshade, and Niall slowly scoots over from his side of the bed and closer to Zayn.

Zayn loses track of how long they both lay there, and after a while he just falls asleep. The exhaustion of the day before and how he stayed up the entire night was finally starting to get to him.

Zayn wakes up to the low hum of the hotel television. It’s got the local news on, and Niall’s sitting up in the bed next to him, scrolling through his phone.

“How long was I asleep?” Zayn asks, rubbing his eyes.

“A while.” Niall says, putting away his phone. “I’m supposed to be at the arena soon.”

“Can I come?” Zayn wonders outloud. He thinks maybe he should go back to New York, but with no green supervillains flying around, they’ll probably be okay for one day.

“Yeah.” Niall nods, and takes out his phone again. Zayn thinks he’s probably texting someone important. “I’ll have security make you a pass.”

They don’t need to do much to get ready to leave the hotel. Niall waves it off, saying he usually gets his hair restyled before the show anyways. They get escorted by hotel security to the car waiting outside the back, where a few fans holding up some signs for Shawn are waiting.

Zayn feels a _tiny_ bit proud when he sees a sign for Niall.

The car ride to the arena is short, and Niall’s busy making all the arrangements, and introducing everyone to Zayn so they know that he’s a guest of Niall’s tonight.

Zayn has to wear some laminate pass around his neck, just in case some other security guard Zayn didn’t meet decides to kick him out of the arena.

He hangs out and watches while Niall gets his hair done, making conversation with Niall’s hair stylist named Lou.

“He goes to Empire State University.” Niall tells her as she’s working through his hair with mousse. “If things turned out differently, I’d probably be studying journalism there right now.”

“You? A journalist?” Lou replies, sounding surprised.

“It’s how we became friends,” Zayn pipes in. “He was the editor of the school paper.”

“That’s sweet.” Lou flashes a smile at Zayn, and continues to work on Niall’s hair for the show.  

They’re running a bit late, so Niall has to change in a rush and be on stage in less than five minutes. Zayn’s got a good view from backstage, and Niall’s finally making his entrance.

Niall’s act starts, and Zayn meets a few people he met from the other night. Zayn didn’t actually get the chance to listen to Niall’s full set. He’s enjoying it so far, and only one of the songs Niall has performed so far is on his actual album.

Halfway through Niall’s set, he bumps into Shawn again, who stands next to him, watching from the side.

“He talks about you a lot, you know.” Shawn tells him as they both watch Niall.

“He does?” Zayn replies. He doesn’t know what to expect, really.

“It was his idea to do the Spider-Man song last night.” Shawn says, laughing. “Kind of ridiculous.”

Zayn freezes for a moment, because there would be _no way_ that this guy figured out he was Spider-Man. Zayn figures, unless the conversation ever went there with Niall, and Niall’s always been tight-lipped about his secret.

“Since you take photos of him, and all.” Shawn comments. “Ever thought about a career in photography?”

“No, not really.” Zayn chuckles at himself, and forgets about having a mini-freakout over a popstar knowing his secret superhero identity. He can’t let it slip to too many people. “I’m studying biology and physics at school.”

“Enjoy the show, man.” Shawn leaves to go somewhere backstage, and Zayn doesn’t know how to take it in. He’s just a kid from Queens, and now he’s backstage at a concert.

Niall’s set ends, and there’s a loud applause. The crowd loves Niall, and Zayn loves watching the way his face lights up on stage. He’d always been too shy in high school, and now he’s in front of thousands of people every night.

Niall takes Zayn to watch the rest of the concert over by the sound engineers. A few fans scream when they notice Niall’s made his way over there, and for the most part they get to enjoy the show.

Niall’s standing next to him, doing some dorky dance moves along with the music. Zayn can’t stop laughing, and it makes his heart ache a little because of how much he missed Niall.

“I wish I could go to D.C. with you,” Zayn tells him after the show. They’re backstage again, and the crew is already packing to head back onto the road.

“Me too.” Niall sighs.

They haven’t really gotten to talking more about what happened earlier, since they’ve had little time alone. Given the circumstances though, it’s best to take things slow since Niall’s going to be on tour for the rest of the summer, anyways.

“I’ll call you.” Zayn says, trying not to sound too hopeful.

Both of them are quiet for a moment, as various crew members backstage continue to move along. There’s a lot of shouting and sounds of carts rolling around, and Zayn guesses that now is probably a good time to head back home.

“I love you.” Niall says, grabbing Zayn’s hand. It’s warm, and Zayn can feel Niall rubbing small circles against his thumb.

“I know.”

Niall leans forward, getting closer into Zayn’s space. There’s still a lot of the crew around, and Zayn doesn’t want to out Niall or anything, so he backs away a little bit.

“What’re you doing?” Niall laughs, and pulls Zayn back. He presses a light kiss against Zayn’s lips, and holds his hand again. “It’s fine.”  
  
“I really hate that I have to go right now,” Zayn sighs. It’s late, and he took off from his duties today. Every once in awhile Spider-Man does deserve a break, but he’s already been gone for too long.

Niall walks Zayn back to the exit where they entered the arena, and Zayn gets into a cab to the train station. It’s not a long ride, and this time he’s lucky that the train isn’t delayed. Zayn soaks in the events of the day, thinking about Niall, his future, and the show. Given both of their career paths, it’s not likely that Niall will cross path with danger any time soon, other than maybe an extreme fan or two, and it eases Zayn from worrying too much.

The less time anyone spends in the city, the better, but given the events that have been happening in the past few years, maybe there’s nowhere that’s completely safe from danger.

Zayn gets off at Penn station, and takes the opportunity to quickly change into his Spidey suit. A late night patrol wasn’t going to make up for missing the whole day, but it’s the least he could do.

He’s hanging out on the top of a lamppost, just sitting and observing the street around him, when a woman, maybe 20 at the most, stops just before the lamppost.

“Hi.” She waves at him. Zayn waves back. “Spider-Man, right?”  
  
“That’s me,” Zayn says proudly, and points to the Spider logo on his chest.

“I was wondering if you could walk me home?” The woman asks, looking a bit scared. It’s past midnight, and Zayn wonders why she’s out here by herself in the first place. “There was someone following me a while back, but I can’t tell if I lost them.”  
  
Zayn jumps down from the lamppost, and starts walking alongside her. She tells him her name is Alisha, and that her boss had kept her behind at work while closing the store.

He listens as she talks, and follows along, letting her steer the conversation while he watches around them. If whoever was following her is still around, they might be doing a job at keeping themselves hidden.

When they get to her building, Zayn walks around the block a few times to make sure that no one had followed them, or saw where she lived. Zayn saves lives every day, and sometimes it’s nice just to help someone out, no matter how big or small the problem is.

For a slight moment, Zayn starts to get the feeling that he’s being followed again, but brushes it off. Zayn still hasn’t gotten a full night of sleep, and figures maybe now is the best time to retire and head back home.

Zayn manages to change back into his regular clothes, and actually enters his apartment the regular way-- through the front door. Liam’s asleep, by the looks of it, and Zayn makes his way to his bedroom and finally flops down on the bed.

The exhaustion catches up to him, and he’s too lazy to dress out of his street clothes and into something else. He’ll regret it tomorrow, but for now, getting some rest is his top priority.

\--

Zayn wakes up late on Sunday afternoon. He changes out of his clothes from the night before, and finds a pair of sweats and a clean t-shirt before leaving his room.

Liam’s there, in the kitchen, and from what Zayn can tell, he’s already making lunch.

“So I hear yesterday went well.” Liam sing-songs.

“How does news travel between all of you so fast?” Zayn puts a hand over his chest and pretends to be surprised.

“Are you planning on travelling out and going to more shows?” Liam asks.

“No, I can’t.” Zayn replies. “The Stark internship keeps me pretty busy, and I need the money.”

“Right,” Liam says, and focuses back on cooking lunch. “You probably already talked about that.”

“Yeah.” Zayn just goes with it, mostly because he doesn’t want to have to keep lying. Liam’s still the only one who doesn’t know he’s Spider-Man, and he’d rather keep it that way for both of their sake.

Liam ended up cooking spaghetti, and serves Zayn a plate. They eat at the counter together while Zayn gives him most of the details of the concert from the day before.

“Oh, crap.” Liam blurts out randomly, just as Zayn’s about to go back to his room and attend to some Spidey business.

“What?”

“I’m late meeting Harry.” Liam says back.

“Harry’s here?” Zayn asks in disbelief. He didn’t text the group chat, and Louis didn’t mention it either.

“He got back yesterday, in the afternoon.” Liam informs him.

“Oh, well, tell him I said hi.” Zayn shrugs. If Harry really wants to reach out to him, he has Zayn’s number.

\--

Zayn does a sweep of the city, and later comes back to his apartment to take a break, and go through some stuff he has to sort for his internship.

He’s also behind on emailing photos to the _Bugle_ , which would probably be his grocery money so he can stop mooching off Liam’s leftovers.

Zayn doesn’t realize he spends most of his afternoon and evening sorting through all his work. Even though his room’s a mess, his computer and files have always been meticulously organized.

The payment from his photos won’t go in until next Friday, and from what Zayn’s making at his internship, he should be ok for his share of the rent.

He still feels a bit tired from the entire weekend, and Zayn feels like he could skip out on another night of duty. Zayn feels guilty doing it, but with the Goblin gone, there’s been less supervillains running around the streets.

Zayn falls asleep at his desk, and wakes up a few hours later to the sounds of someone knocking on his door. He’s not quite awake, so he opens it and of course it’s Liam.

“Zayn, he’s back.” Liam tells him, sounding really freaked out. “The Goblin’s back.”

“That’s impossible.” Zayn replies. The last they heard, Harry’s dad was locked up in a high security prison.

“They don’t know if it’s him, or maybe an impersonator.” Liam hands Zayn his phone, and it’s open to an article. “There was an attack in D.C.”

“D.C.? Is Niall okay?”  

“It was a few blocks away from the concert. No one was hurt.”

Zayn pulls out his own phone and tries Niall right away, but it rings a few times before going to voicemail. Zayn doesn’t want to worry too much, since Liam did say no one was hurt.

Liam turns on the TV, and the news is on, giving more details about the attack. They make sure to emphasize that Harry’s father, Desmond, is currently still in prison and no breakouts have occurred. Zayn sits on the couch next to Liam, and both of them remain silent. No one knows what this means yet, or what could happen in the upcoming days. When the first Goblin terrorized the city, Zayn doesn’t know if he could’ve made it out alive without Niall’s help.

Now, Zayn has zero leads on this guy. If Desmond was locked up, Zayn had no clue or even a close guess on who the new Goblin could be. Harry had come back, but Zayn figures the chances of Harry being a super villain as a slim possibility.

Zayn’s phone screen lights up and it’s a notification from Niall. He unlocks his phone, and opens Niall’s text. He’d been anxiously waiting for a response for almost an hour now, and Niall had assured him that everything was fine, and had a ton of meetings to go to.

“Everything okay?” Liam asks, poking Zayn’s arm.

“Yeah, he’s fine.” Zayn nods. “They were having a meeting about the tour.”

Zayn breathes in a sigh of relief. Zayn hopes that the tour will go on, and delay Niall’s time to come back to New York. With the Goblin impersonator, who knows what the city will be like in a few days time.

Liam turns off the TV, and Zayn goes back to his room to be alone for a bit. His powers do give him heightened senses, but there’s no way Zayn would have predicted this. Zayn’s already been on edge for the past couple of weeks, and already getting the feeling he’s being followed.

Zayn now has two things to worry about. This person, whoever’s following him, and the Goblin impersonator. He guesses that there’s a chance they might be related, but Zayn is going in with no evidence to prove his theory.

\--

Louis and Liam invite Zayn out to meet up with Harry. They’re all meeting at some hipster coffee shop that Zayn can never remember the name of, and it’s going to be the first time he’s seen Harry in ages.

Harry did end up finding about Zayn’s secret. It didn’t take him too long to put things together the night when Niall had asked him to track his dad’s phone. Zayn wouldn’t be surprised if Harry hated him for it, especially since he did get his dad arrested.

The first thing Zayn notices about Harry is his hair. It’s cut a lot shorter now, and the trip around the world seems to have changed him. He’s not the exact same Harry he knew from last year, with all the weight of a failed attempt at saving his family’s company behind him.

They all catch up over coffee, talking about all the things they have done in the past year. Harry’s travels are certainly interesting, given the fact that he did everything he could to remain unseen from most of the public eye after the Goblin saga.

The Goblin saga doesn’t seem to be over yet though. The four of them reminisce for a bit, talking about the old high school days, and back when they used to pile onto Niall’s couch and watch bad movies. The New Jersey trip. They’re all very careful not to mention anything close to prom.

“How’s Niall these days?” Harry asks. “Heard he’s a proper rockstar now.”

“He’s great.” Louis replies. “We all watched him at The Garden a few nights ago.”

“I’ll have to fly out and see him sometime, then.” Harry says, taking a small sip of his coffee.

“That might not happen, though.” Zayn sighs. “Haven’t you heard?”

“Heard what?” Harry asks, looking genuinely confused.

“Zayn, don’t.” Liam says quietly, but Harry shoots him a look.

“There was a Goblin attack.” Zayn replies. “In D.C., near the concert.”

“That can’t be possible.” Harry says, looking shocked. “My dad’s in jail.”

“He’s an impersonator, then.” Louis pipes in. “It’s the only explanation.”

“Niall said he doesn’t know if they’re going to cancel the tour or not.” Zayn says, chewing on his lip. Zayn thinks it’d be safer if they continued the tour. The farther away they get from New York City, the better. Especially if the Goblin impersonator follows in the original’s footsteps.

They sit in the cafe in an awkward silence for what feels like forever. Zayn doesn’t know what else to say, or tell Harry, especially since he had no part in what happened last year. Harry was just as in the dark as the rest of the city.

Louis finally breaks the silence, changing the topic to talking about Eleanor’s work at _The Bugle_ , and his stories about the exciting life of being a retail worker. He does his best to lighten the mood, and by the end of their hang out, Zayn feels the group is more relaxed.

Zayn manages to catch Harry on his way out. He’d been wanting to talk to him alone for a while, but apparently Harry got a new number, and Liam was the only one who had it. It didn’t really take much for Zayn to figure out why, seeing as Harry’s probably always had a crush on Liam.

“Hey,” Zayn says, tapping Harry’s side lightly. Harry stops, and the two stand next to each other just right outside the coffee shop. “I saw these earlier on the way here,” Zayn tells him, and hands him a packet of pop rocks. As kids, they never ate them, but they would always put them in a glass of water just to watch what happened.

“Thanks,” Harry says, looking confused. “What are these?”

“Pop rocks.” Zayn replies. “From when we were kids?”

“Oh,” Harry shrugs, and pockets them. “Sorry, I spaced for a second.”

“I just wanted to say I’m sorry, for last year.” Zayn tells him. “Out of all people—”

“It’s fine, it’s not your fault.” Harry says, patting Zayn on the shoulder.  “I have to go though, so I’ll talk to you later?”

“Yeah,” Zayn nods. “See you later, Harry.”

The two part ways, going in opposite directions. Lunch time is mostly over now, and Zayn has to head back to the office by 1:00 pm. Most of the time, they let Zayn get an hour for lunch, but he doesn’t take the entire hour. He prefers to spend most of his time eating lunch in the office.

Zayn goes through his normal routine at work, and as much as he tries, he can’t get his meeting with Harry out of his mind. Harry wouldn’t have forgotten about the pop rocks only after a year of not seeing each other. When Harry had transferred to Midtown Science, Harry was the one who had gifted Zayn a packet of pop rocks. It just didn’t seem like Harry.

Maybe, after all this time, he really did change. Zayn guesses that after what happened with his dad, he could have forgotten about things or brushed it aside. They were good friends as kids, and when they were reunited back in high school their friendship seemed to be getting back to that same place. Zayn brushes off his thoughts about Harry for the time being, and focuses back on his work when his boss snaps him out of it.

Once Zayn gets out of work, he finally gets another chance to talk to Niall on the phone. Since they last saw each other in New Jersey, they’ve been texting and calling every now and then when both of their schedules allowed it.

Niall tells him that the tour will go on as planned, and given the current events it seems like the Goblin is on his way to New York, and Zayn’s going to have to be prepared in the upcoming days.

“Have you talked to Harry?” Zayn asks, changing the subject.

“Not since he was in London, like, 2 weeks ago.” Niall answers. “Is he back in the city?”

“Yeah,” Zayn replies. “It’s weird though, he would’ve called me.”

“He hasn’t called me either.” Niall tells him. “Well,” Niall sighs, “I have to go.”

“Already?” Zayn says, trying not to sound too sad.

“I’ll call you later.” Niall replies. “Save the world, Spidey.”

“I’m trying,” Zayn laughs.

—

Now that summer is in full blast, Zayn’s starting to feel a bit stuffy under the Spider-Man mask. There’s been no report of a Goblin sighting since the attack last week, but Zayn’s been taking extra patrols, and staying up later than he’s used to. It’s taking a toll on his sleep schedule, and Zayn’s going into his internship feeling like he’s barely had any rest.

Both he and Niall have been too busy lately to get a proper phone call in, and Zayn doesn’t have any issues with it. They’re both busy, and the build up will be worth it when the tour is over at the end of August. It gives Zayn more time to think about the Goblin, and finding out whoever’s been following him these past couple of weeks.

Zayn feels terrible about it, but he called out sick today in favor of tailing Harry around the city. He called and asked if Harry was free to have lunch today, but Harry said he was busy with meetings around the city regarding business. Zayn assumes he means something to do with the company, or whatever Harry’s trying to build ever since Styles Industries went under.

Zayn’s very careful about not being seen. He follows from the rooftops, watching Harry walking on the sidewalk from the opposite side. Harry’s alone, and walking into various tall buildings but not staying inside them for very long. Zayn’s been on his feet most of the day, always on the move, watching and observing.

He follows Harry further and further away from the city. It’s harder to keep track of him from on top of various buildings, but he watches as he enters a storage unit, alone. Harry’s in there for quite some time, and if Zayn had to guess it’s probably around the 30 minute mark.

Zayn watches as Harry leaves the storage unit, and locks up. Zayn sits back on the top of the building, and waits at least an hour before he decides to take a peek inside. It also helps that Zayn gets a text from Liam saying he’s getting dinner with Harry.

He swings over to the next building, and climbs down the side of it. Zayn had changed out of his Spidey suit on the roof. He’s in all black, and Zayn makes sure to pull the hood over his head, just in case anyone ever checks the security footage. He really should get around to making something to jam the signal, but this trip wasn’t planned.

Zayn manages to get the lock open, and he keeps the door open just in case anyone tries to lock him inside.

The storage unit is half filled with the same kind of crates, and Zayn opens the one closest to him. It’s not clasped shut like most of the other ones, and he gets it opened easily. Zayn doesn’t like what he finds inside.

There’s rolls of cash and weapons inside. Zayn guesses he won’t have to open all the other crates, given the fact that they’re all identical looking, they’re probably filled with the same thing.

Zayn carefully shuts the crate, and locks the storage unit back up. He climbs back up the side of the building he was on earlier, and takes a moment to sit on the ledge to process what he just found out.

He knew things were a bit tough for Harry at the moment, but Zayn didn’t expect him to be caught up with selling weapons. The Goblin tech was the entire reason that Styles Industries went under, and it still makes zero sense to Zayn.

Zayn figures he can’t tell Louis about this. He’d probably have a tough time believing him, but overall Zayn feels like the only one who notices that there’s _something_ up with Harry.

—

That odd feeling comes back again. Instead of doing the following, this time Zayn feels like he’s being followed. He’s lost track of the amount of times he’s felt it, but he can’t seem to shake it. Zayn doesn’t want to seem paranoid, but he spends an awful lot of time sleeping over at Eleanor and Louis’ apartment on their lumpy couch. Even if he does have a perfectly good bed at home, Zayn isn’t convinced that he’s safe.

He ignores Louis’ protests. Zayn hasn’t really told anyone about this, except for Niall in passing. Niall insists Zayn stay over at the condo he bought a long time ago, but Zayn felt weird going there when Niall was still away on tour.

“It’s been a week.” Louis says, crossing his arms over his chest. “It’s been nice having you here, Zayn, but don’t you share a perfectly nice two bedroom apartment with Liam?”

“There’s something happening,” Zayn says. “I don’t know what, but I just need some time.”

“Sorry, Zayn.” Louis shakes his head. “Lottie is coming to stay over for a bit, so you’re going to have to find somewhere else to stay.”

Zayn packs up his small duffle bag, and shoves the rest of his belongings into his backpack. He can’t go to his apartment with Liam just yet, and Zayn finally takes up Niall on his offer.

Niall’s condo is far away from Zayn’s place, in a building even fancier than Niall’s mom’s. Niall says he’s already on the list, and Zayn just walks past the lobby and straight to the elevator. He enters in the door code and when he finally gets inside Niall’s new place, Zayn heads straight for the couch and almost passes out right on top of it. He’s barely slept the last few days because of the feeling he can’t shake, and really hopes his paranoia isn’t getting the best of him.

—

A Goblin attack happens when Zayn finally goes back to his own apartment. It has all the making of a Goblin attack— the smoke, a few explosives being thrown onto the street, but before Zayn can manage to get a look at the new Goblin, they disappear.

Of course, this leads Zayn to get smeared in the _Bugle_ again by Jameson. It’s not a surprise to him, but it’s still frustrating because Zayn is doing everything he possibly can, and the police have no leads either.

Zayn’s running on little to no sleep, and drinking his second cup of coffee for the day during his internship. He can feel his eyes drooping, and not even any amount of concealer could cover how tired Zayn is.

One of his bosses must notice how tired he is, because they send Zayn home and tell him not to come in tomorrow until after lunch. Zayn almost wants to cry, but he also remembers the dread of the Goblin Impersonator being out there, waiting to strike at any moment.

On his way back home he actually runs into Harry, but doesn’t expect to see him in the middle of an alleyway selling actual _guns_. Zayn watches from across the street, and the deal unfolds in front of him. Harry is alone, and Zayn almost wants to yell at him, because how stupid could you be going into a situation where there’s 5 other guys buying guns.

Zayn runs across the street, and stays behind a wall watching. Harry’s pocketing the cash and as soon as the guys get their hands on the merchandise, is when everything goes south. One of the thugs actually punches Harry in the face and tries to steal the cash.

Without any time to change into his suit, Zayn goes in throwing a couple of punches before grabbing Harry and getting the hell out of there. They were lucky that the guns kept in the crate weren’t even loaded.

Zayn’s still running, and he’s tugging Harry behind him. They manage to go a few blocks, but Harry drags Zayn to a complete stop.

“How’d you know where I was?” Harry asks, breathless.

“You’re an idiot,” Zayn sighs. “I was on my way out of work.”

“Thanks.” Harry mumbles, and Zayn watches Harry wince as he touches his black eye.

“You’re an idiot,” Zayn repeats again. “What are you doing, selling that kind of stuff without any bodyguards?”

“I had everything under control,” Harry says back. “I had those guys!”

“Before or after you got punched in the face?” Zayn sighs again. “I don’t know what’s up with you these days, Harry.”

“I never asked for your help.” Harry shouts. “This is why I didn’t call you when I came back.”

“Whatever,” Zayn says, shaking his head. “Whatever you’re doing now, just leave the rest of our friends out of it.”

Zayn leaves before Harry has the chance to say anything else. He’s tired, angry, and really needs to take a nap. Zayn gets back to his apartment, and he feels like he’s on autopilot. He ignores Liam’s greeting from the couch, goes straight to his bedroom, shuts the door and goes to sleep.

—

Zayn wakes up in the middle of the night, and he still doesn’t feel 100%. He changes into his suit and crawls out the window. Zayn hasn’t made his late night rounds in a while, and he needs the change of pace to get his mind off of what happened between him and Harry earlier. He swings around the city and makes his usual rounds like he would during the day. He’s been going down some of the same routes, and Zayn doesn’t get the feeling of someone following him at night as often as he does during the day time.

The city is never quiet, but during times like this Zayn almost feels like it could be. Zayn could always find peace in it and anytime he left the city he had trouble sleeping without the sounds of his window back at his apartment.

Zayn stops and takes a break for a moment. He’s sitting on the ledge of the building with his backpack next to him, and unexpectedly, his phone starts ringing.

“Hello?” he answers.

“Hey,” Niall replies. “You’re awake.”

“Barely.” Zayn huffs. “I don’t know what to do.”

“You’ll figure it out.” Niall assures him. “You always do.”

“Niall,” Zayn breathes out. “Harry’s got himself into something stupid.”

“Stupid, like him tripping at a fundraiser kind of thing, or something else?” Niall asks.

“The selling weapons kind.” Zayn says honestly. “I didn’t want to worry anyone, but a while back I followed him to a storage and I saw him holding a bunch of crates.”

“Holy shit, Zayn.”

“Today he got beat up during a deal and he blew up at me for getting his ass out of there.” Zayn tells him. “This isn’t the Harry we know.”

“Did you tell everyone else?” Niall asks.

“No, they don’t need to get involved in this. They shouldn’t have to worry.”

“Wish I was there to help.” Niall sighs.

“God, I miss you.” Zayn thinks out loud. “Remember when we went to the Rangers game? I feel like that was the last time everything felt normal before it became like this.”

“You were still Spider-Man then.” Niall pipes in.

“I mean, before we found out Harry’s dad was a supervillain.” Zayn laughs.

“I’ve been meaning to tell you—”

“I have to go,” Zayn says, propping his phone up against his cheek and gets his web shooters properly onto his wrist. “There’s an ATM robbery happening across the street from me right now.”

“I’ll call you tomorrow.” Niall says. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Zayn replies, and shoves his phone into his backpack before swinging off to the other side of the street.

—

Since Zayn doesn’t have to be in at work early, he takes the opportunity to fix his web shooter formula. He knows there’s still a lot he can improve on, and he needs a new batch because he’s been running low as of late.

Liam’s gone on a two day trip to upstate New York with Harry, so Zayn gets to work and sets up on the kitchen counter. Zayn has a notebook out of his two past formulas— and hopes to make the third version last more than three hours, maybe four. Version 2.0 lasts two hours, so Zayn thinks he might be able to push it.

The science of it has always been easy for Zayn. He almost doesn’t even have to think about it, and he goes through a few trials before settling on making more of his 2.0 batch since he does need to be at work in a few hours.

Zayn’s reloading his web shooter, and didn’t realize the mechanism was a little off, and—

A web explodes all over the kitchen. It’s everywhere, on Zayn’s notes, the rest of the beakers, and it spreads out to the couch in the living room. It sticks to the lower part of his face, and he has a hard time turning his head right after the web sets.

Only one of Zayn’s hands is free to reach the liquid dissolver and barely has enough to free his other hand. That’s when Zayn notices that his feet are also stuck too.

Zayn has more of the dissolver in his room, if he could even get to it right now. He could call Louis, but his cell is on the other side of the counter. Zayn leans on the counter, and guesses he’ll have to wait the two full hours for his stupid web to dissolve.

After what seems like forever, Zayn perks up as he hears someone unlocking the front door of his apartment. He hears the key turn in the lock, and when the door opens, Zayn’s completely taken by surprise.

“I thought you weren’t coming back for another 2 weeks?” Zayn asks. He’s desperately trying to work his way out of the web, but his feet are firmly planted to the ground.

“I meant to tell you on the phone,” Niall smiles. “So, you’re stuck?”

“You have to go to my closet and get more cans of this stuff,” Zayn says, holding up his empty can of dissolver. “Spray it everywhere.”

Niall runs in and out of Zayn’s room, and gets to work spraying down most of the couch and the entire kitchen. After five minutes, Zayn is finally free.

Before Niall can even dispose of the cans, Zayn runs right into Niall and wraps his arms so tightly around Niall that Zayn’s afraid he might be squeezing a bit too hard.

“I missed you.” Zayn whispers into Niall’s neck.

“I missed you, too.” Niall says back. He drops the empty cans onto the floor.

Zayn steps back for a moment, letting Niall go from the hug. He places his hands on both sides of Niall’s face, and Zayn stares right into Niall’s eyes. It’s been so, so long since the two of them had any time together like this, privately and didn’t have to share each other with the world. Niall closes the gap between them and their lips finally meet after ages.

—

They’re happy.

Zayn spends a lot of time doing dumb shit at Niall’s condo. It mostly consists of loading the dishwasher with the wrong soap, and Zayn gets bubbles all over Niall’s kitchen floor. For a while it almost feels normal, as if Niall and Zayn were just a regular couple, living together and trying to figure things out. After the web fluid fiasco, Niall and Zayn find themselves in a regular routine.

They have breakfast, Niall walks him to his internship on most days, if someone can avoid the paparazzi. It’s getting difficult these days and Zayn doesn’t want to see his own face on a copy of the _Bugle_ if it isn’t behind a mask. Zayn does his normal city watching shifts and he gets to go home to Niall.

It almost doesn’t feel real. Zayn feels like at any moment something could go wrong. Zayn can’t remember the last time he had something this good in life going for him at once. He doesn’t want to ruin it, but his brain always has to remind him that when something good happens, bad things will soon follow. Zayn can’t think about that. Not with Niall. Not _again_. The year without him was bad enough. Zayn always had his friends, but the guilt he felt about Niall and not being able to get the chance to be face to face with him for so long, and out of his own stubbornness, there was so much wasted time that they could’ve been together.

The entire year. If Zayn could’ve gotten his shit together sooner, or if Niall headed back to New York sooner, Zayn wonders how differently things could’ve been. There’s no time to dwell on the past, but Zayn can only look forward to the future and the best with Niall.

After a few days of bliss, reality starts to kick in at Niall’s place.

“Time for your rounds,” Niall mumbles in bed next to Zayn. It’s 2am, and Zayn usually leaves around this time like clockwork. It’s just so hard when Niall’s here, because all he wants to do is stay and sleep for once.

“Alright, I’m getting up.” Zayn sighs.

Despite Niall’s protests, Zayn always swings off the balcony of Niall’s condo. No one ever notices in the dead of the night, and Zayn’s pretty sure all of Niall’s neighbors were retirees who went to bed at 8pm.

Zayn’s 2am rounds aren’t usually that busy, but tonight he’s got his hands full with a couple of groups trying to rob various businesses on the same street he used to get sandwiches from during lunch near Midtown Science. Zayn gets hit a few times, and by the end of the fight he barely even noticed that his left arm had gotten grazed by a bullet.

He struggles getting around the city and back to Niall’s place. Zayn’s later than usual, and it’s taking him longer because he gets the feeling that he has a tail again. He tries to shrug off the paranoia but ever since he helped walk that girl home that night back from New Jersey, it’s been embedded into Zayn’s brain. The thing is, he didn’t even get the feeling all the time. Certain hours, and areas. Usually it was during random times of the day, and never at night. Zayn’s feeling that this is connected to the Goblin is getting stronger by the minute.

Zayn just hopes his hunch is right.

He stumbles back into Niall’s place just past 5am, and Zayn struggles to make a quiet entrance. Zayn nearly hits his head on the way in, and Niall’s already up and waiting with a first aid kid in hand. It’s like Niall has a sense for anytime Zayn gets injured.

“How’d you know?” Zayn asks, flopping down on the edge of the bed. He struggles to get out of his suit, but Niall just cuts it open at the arm with a pair of scissors.

“You’re usually on time and back in bed by four,” Niall tells him. “Sorry about the suit,” Niall adds.

“It’s okay, I’ve got like, 50 of them hanging around.” Zayn jokes. It’s always been just the one suit. Torn apart and stitched back together, Zayn doesn’t even know how he even manages to make it look nice.

Niall cleans up Zayn’s wound pretty good, and Zayn hopes it’ll fully heal by tomorrow morning. If not, he’ll probably end up getting blood on his lab coat at work.  

“Got any leads?” Niall asks.

“I’ve got a weird theory that it’s Harry,” Zayn tells him. “I get a feeling that it’s him, but there’s something off about Harry. It’s like I don’t even know him.”

Zayn steers Niall away from the topic after that, wanting to avoid any further conversation about Harry. He doesn’t want to get Niall too involved this time around, but knowing Niall, once he’s in on something, there’s no backing out.

“Maybe I’ll see him sometime this week.” Niall says. “I can help.”

“I told him to leave our friends out of it.” Zayn sighs. “If you think it’ll help, though.”

Zayn doesn’t mention it again, and Niall falls asleep soundly next to him on the bed. Zayn can’t get himself to sleep just yet, and he can still feel a bit of pain from his arm. It’s been harder for Zayn to sleep lately, thinking about the Goblin impersonator and Harry. Zayn thinks he’ll have perpetual dark circles under his eyes for the rest of his life.

Everything eats away at his brain. Is he really being followed? Does he even have solid ground to accuse Harry of something, with the only evidence being the weapons deals? Zayn’s always been a little paranoid, but this was different. No one ever followed him, and when they did, he always shook them off fast enough. This was constant stream, and ever since that night he came back from New Jersey it’s like it never left him at all.

He gets out of bed just an hour later to get ready to go to work. Zayn still has another hour but sometimes he takes the _long_ way to go to the office. Zayn stares at the bandage on his arm, and slowly begins to peel it off. The bleeding has stopped, and luckily he’s mostly healed up that it looks like an old scratch.

Zayn stalls on leaving for work, taking one last glance at Niall sleeping. Zayn doesn’t want to think about how much time they have left together before Niall has to leave again, so he pushes that thought out of his mind and makes sure not to make a noise when the door closes behind him.

—

Zayn doesn’t make it to work that day. He’s positive that after this is over, he’ll get an email that Stark Industries sent all their employees home that day, because of the Goblin attack.

He was about to opt for the longer route to work, but something about today pushed Zayn to walk to the closest train station. The streets seemed pretty normal, the regular commuters and maybe a few tourists since it was summer. No news of the Goblin had ever steered away tourists.

Zayn looks up over the buildings, and into the sky. That’s when he sees him. The Goblin. The glider is different from the one before, and he’s coming in even faster. Someone screams, and it’s the last thing Zayn remembers when he wakes up what seems like minutes later, alone in an alleyway with his ears ringing. His face feels wet, and Zayn reaches up to touch his forehead to see blood all over his hand.

The bleeding is minimal and Zayn is able to stop it and wipe most of it on his face before getting himself to stand upright. There’s no one near him, and he takes advantage of the moment.

Zayn’s backpack is still on, though he’s probably unlucky and has smashed his laptop for the hundredth time. He ignores it, and finds his suit in the hidden compartment and changes as fast as he can. By the sound of things, the Goblin is still out there and Zayn has another window to finally catch whoever this new Goblin is.

The Goblin starts throwing smoke bombs, and Zayn adjusts his settings on his mask so he can see clearly through the smoke. The Goblin flies above his head, and Zayn braces himself for impact, but the Goblin doesn’t budge.

Zayn makes his move, and launches a web shooter right for the Goblin’s mask, and yanks hard. The Goblin tries to fly away, but Zayn manages to grab a nearby lamppost and hangs on. Zayn pulls harder, and the Goblin’s mask flies off.

The Goblin looks almost faceless, with barely distinct features and he’s also bald. The Goblin contorts his face into a sick smile, and the next time Zayn blinks he’s morphed his face into Desmond Styles. Zayn swears that just a moment later, the Goblin changes his face to match Harry’s before he throws down another bomb, sending Zayn flying into the side of a building.

The Goblin picks Zayn up by the neck, pinning him up against the brick of the building. Zayn wasn’t imagining things, and the Goblin has taken on Harry’s face. The Goblin sticks a bomb around Zayn’s wrist and he changes his face back, just one more time— back to Desmond before putting his mask back on. Zayn hears the tick of the bomb around his wrist, and rips it off as fast as he can, and he barely gets it off before throwing it back at him.

The Goblin gets away, _again_.

And Zayn still doesn’t even know who—or _what_ he is.

When the city settles down, Zayn is pretty lucky no one was around to take photos. Desmond Styles is still safely locked away in a high security prison, so he’s not too sure many people would buy that he’s still the Goblin. He does get cursed out by Jameson via phone, since Zayn is _still_ the only premier Spider-Man photographer in the city.

Harry can’t be the Goblin either, because no one human could even morph faces that quickly and convincingly. Harry’s always been _off_ since he came back from Europe, but Zayn didn’t expect this to be the reason. Harry was forgetting things, and participating in certain / _illegal_ activities that he wasn’t a part of before.

Harry hangs out with Liam, a lot, and given the fact that Liam does not have a single clue about Zayn, it’s unlikely he’d know anything about Harry. Zayn can’t exactly confront _not_ Harry in his own apartment without giving his identity away to whoever’s posing as him. There’s a good chance that this is the guy who’s been following Zayn all summer, and might even be after Zayn’s own identity.

When Zayn gets back to Niall’s, he’s battered and bruised all over. Niall’s ready at the door, first aid kit in hand, and helps Zayn out with his wounds. Zayn catches him up on the Goblin saga, and hopes Niall might see something that Zayn can’t. It’s why they work. Zayn and Niall may be opposites but Niall can always see the details that Zayn misses.

“The Chameleon,” Niall blurts out.

“What?” Zayn asks.

“That’s what we’ll call him.” Niall replies. “It’s the best I can come up with, at least, for someone who can change his face.” Niall shrugs.

“No, I like it.” Zayn says, smiling at Niall. “It works.”

—

Zayn has had enough time to reflect on the improvements he’s made to better himself over the past year. Deep down, Zayn knows he’ll always worry about Niall, even though he knows he doesn’t have to. Their dynamic has definitely changed. They’re more mature than they were a year ago, and since Niall is in and out of the city so often, it’s easy to get lost.

After last year’s events, Zayn made a spare set of web shooters. It was only after he finished making them that he realized he didn’t make them for himself, but for Niall. The night Niall almost died after being thrown off the building by the Goblin, Zayn had nightmares about it for weeks that spanned into months. He’s been carrying them around in his backpack ever since, waiting for the chance that he’ll finally give them to Niall.

Zayn brought back takeout with him, because he’s useless at cooking and everyone knows it. Niall had given up teaching him how to cook after he set all the fire alarms in Bobby’s apartment last year, before all the Goblin mess happened. It was hopeless.

It’s Niall’s favorite— the sandwiches from their favorite lunch spot in high school. The very same sandwich spot where Zayn had accidentally ditched Niall to fight the Goblin, only for Niall to bust his knee getting away only moments later.

Niall’s waiting for him in the kitchen, getting napkins, and Zayn thinks this could be the perfect time.

Between all the chaos and business in their lives, this just might be one of the calmest nights before the storm that they both know is coming.

Zayn takes the small box out of his backpack and places the it next to where he set the plastic bags with their sandwiches. He doesn’t point it out to Niall yet, and waits for the right moment.

“You wanna go half and half?” Niall asks, taking the sandwiches out of the bags.

“Sure.” Zayn replies. He thinks he could spend the rest of his life like this. Work, the hero business, and most importantly coming home to Niall.

They’re both standing in the kitchen, and Niall playfully bumps his shoulder into Zayn’s like they’ve been doing this for years. Zayn thinks that if this was a dream, he wouldn’t want to wake up.

“Oh, what’s this?” Niall says, finally noticing the small box on the counter.

“I made it for you. Your own pair.” Zayn says, nodding towards the box. “Web shooters.”

Zayn watches as Niall unwraps the box, and removes the extra tissue to reveal the pair. They’re a lot different than Zayn’s current ones, but they’ll work just for the same purpose. Zayn had designed them so they’d look more like regular bracelets, to look more incognito.

“I’ll always be here, but there might be a day where I’m not fast enough and something happens.” Zayn says, and takes one of the web shooters out of the box to place it onto Niall’s wrist. “I can’t promise you that you’ll never have to use them, but I think we both already know that something might happen soon.”

“Zayn, I can’t wear these all the time.” Niall says, staring at his wrist. “What’s gotten into you?”

The Chameleon. The paranoia. The anxiety constantly keeping Zayn awake at night. The possibility that the real Harry could be dead, and none of them ever knew about it. The thousands of people who died in Goblin attacks last year, and the feeling that everything Zayn did was almost all for nothing. It was a lot of things, but Zayn can’t put all of that on Niall.

“Just promise me you’ll wear them when it matters.” Zayn says, his voice almost breaking.

“I will,” Niall promises, dropping the box on the kitchen counter next to them. “I will,” Niall says again, and this time he seals his promise with a kiss.

—

Over the next week, the Goblin— or Chameleon, Zayn should say— has not made one appearance in the city. Zayn figures he maybe thinks his cover has already blown, or maybe he did it on purpose. Zayn gets a headache at the thought of all the scenarios. He also hasn’t been back at the apartment that he shares with Liam, mostly in avoidance of _not_ Harry.

At the low point, Zayn is forced to go by eventually, and to collect any of his spidey stuff he left hanging around, just in case someone figures out how to pick the locks on his bedroom door. Zayn enters in through the normal way. He’d locked his window as well, just in case the Chameleon had any inkling of his identity.

“Oh, you’re back!”  

Liam’s sitting on the couch, and Harry is there, as expected.

“Yeah,” Zayn shrugs. “Just had to get some of my stuff to move to NIall’s.”

“Oh? You’re moving out?” Liam frowns.

“I don’t know yet, actually.” Zayn says, chewing on his lip. He and Niall had never talked about it and Niall’s due to leave and promote his album soon. “So, how’ve you been, Harry?” Zayn asks, quickly changing the subject.

“Same old. Busy with work.” Harry replies.

“Yeah, I heard selling weapons to criminals is really big in business right now, with the Goblin disappearing again.”

Zayn watches Harry’s expression change, and notices how his fists clench up at Zayn’s comment. He’s not going to push it any further, and Liam seems confused by the whole exchange.

“Harry? What’s he talking about?” Liam asks.

“Just an inside joke,” Harry replies cooly. His expression is still blank, but Liam shakes his head and reverts his attention back to the television.

Zayn ignores the two of them for the rest of the time he’s at the apartment, packing a small suitcase filled with the rest of his gear and extra fluid for his web shooters. By the time he’s done packing everything, Harry’s long gone and Liam is out sleeping on the couch. Zayn doesn’t bother waking him up, and locks all the doors behind him. He doesn’t know if he’ll come back, but Zayn guesses he’ll still pay half the rent until Liam can find another place.

On his way to Niall’s, Zayn lets himself get lost in the city. He hasn’t had enough time to really think on his own, and Zayn finds his way walking from street to street, with his head down and one earbud in while he stresses himself out with more ideas about the Chameleon’s motive.

Just as Zayn’s walking down a busy crosswalk, he feels a figure behind him hold a gun against his back. Zayn stiffens, and he lets whoever it is lead him to the side of the street. Zayn turns around to face them, and the gun is gone.

“I know that _you_ know.” The stranger tells him.

“I don’t—”

“Let’s get to the chase, kid.” The stranger says, and hits Zayn in the head.

Zayn wakes up 5 minutes later in a different alleyway, probably a few blocks where he’s just been. There’s less people, and the sun has finally set.

The stranger turns out to be Harry— or, the Chameleon.

“Desmond said you’d be a pest.” The Chameleon tells him. “Told me I should just kill you when I had the chance. Now, though, where’s the fun in that?”

“So you’ve been following me?” Zayn asks. He starts to piece it together. The muggers outside the concert, and after New Jersey when someone had asked Spider-Man to walk them home because someone was _following_ them.

“I’ll give you a better deal, though.” The Chameleon replies. “Leave the state and maybe I’ll let you live.”

“Why should I do that?” Zayn pins the Chameleon against the wall behind him, and throws in a punch— mostly payback for the one he received earlier.

“You wouldn’t want anything to happen to that boyfriend of yours.” The Chameleon smiles. “Niall, isn’t it? Rockstar and everything.”

“You—” Zayn spits back, and punches him for a second time.

“I know where your aunt lives. I basically _live_ at your old apartment.” The Chameleon answers. “I’ll go through everyone you care about one by one. I’ve already crossed out Harry.”

“Why not just _kill_ me already?” Zayn asks. “I’m the one you want.”

“Because it’s so much more fun to watch you suffer.” The Chameleon laughs.

Zayn doesn’t get the chance to throw another punch, because the next time Zayn opens his eyes it’s way past midnight and Zayn’s still there, left in the alleyway. He found his stuff in the nearby dumpster but everything had seemed to been tampered with anyway. Zayn salvages what he can, and tries to find somewhere to sleep for the night. He can’t go back to Niall’s, not after what the Chameleon told him. There’s no way in hell Zayn is ever going to leave the city. The Chameleon doesn't have to know that, though.

—

The theatre where Louis works is still open, and Zayn takes a chance and heads there first before he has to leave to avoid being seen by the Chameleon. Zayn’s well aware when he’s being followed, but this time, when the full-on paranoia begins to set in, Zayn can’t be too sure these days.

He finds Louis talking to a few of his co-workers, and Zayn not-so-gently grabs Louis arm, dragging him over towards the back door of theatre.

“What did you say to me the day I had my first date with Niall?” Zayn asks, still holding onto Louis’ arm.

“Zayn, have you gone—” Louis says, snapping his arm back. “What’s going on?”

“Answer the question.” Zayn replies.

“I don’t know—” Louis says, flustered. “Something about how if you broke Niall’s heart, I’d kill you. Also some advice.”

“I’m sorry.” Zayn lowers his voice, and looks around, just to make sure no one’s watching. “Harry’s dead.” Zayn looks down, not wanting to see Louis’ immediate reaction. He’d only found out not too long ago— his suspicions finally confirmed by the Chameleon, one of Zayn’s fears coming to life.

“Eleanor and I just saw him, we had brunch with him and Liam,” Louis shakes his head. “What’s going on?”

“I can’t tell you everything, not yet.” Zayn sighs in frustration. “There’s someone out there, someone who can change his face. He’s been pretending to be Harry this entire time.”

“Zayn, I—”

“Niall’s the only person you can tell.” Zayn’s inching them closer towards the back door, just in case he needs to make a quick exit at any moment. “But you have to make sure it’s Niall, okay? Ask him something only the two of you would know.”

“I will.” Louis nods. “And Zayn?”

“Yeah?”

Louis grabs a pen out of the side pocket of his backpack, and lifts up the sleeve of his shirt on his upper arm. On the inside of his arm, he draws three small x’s, and covers them back up with his sleeve.

“Just in case someone’s been listening.” Louis replies. “What’s your next move?”

“I don’t know yet.” Zayn says, biting his lip. “I have to get my family out of the city first.”

“I’ll get it arranged with Niall.” Louis assures him. “Just do your thing.”

Zayn and Louis share one last look before Zayn leaves. With the news about Harry they barely have any time to grieve at all, with plans being set into motion. There’s a strong possibility the Chameleon could show up as Harry again, and Louis will have to pretend everything’s okay. That he isn’t burdened with the knowledge that Harry’s dead.

The childhood friend, the Harry he knew since they were both in diapers. The same Harry who remembered to send his sisters gifts on their birthday every year, even when they weren’t speaking. Zayn can’t remember the last word he ever spoke to Harry, and the guilt eats away at him like everything else does. Could he have saved Harry, wherever he was? Could Zayn have made a difference? If he can’t save everyone, who can he save, if not those closest to him?

The loud honking of cars and regular street noise snap Zayn right back into reality, making him aware of everything around him. The street is dark, and he manages to wrestle a hat out of his backpack, and does his best to cover his face. Zayn’s never been on the run from anyone, and maybe this is it. Maybe the Chameleon was here to steal Zayn’s identity all along, and played all these games just to get here.

He worries about his aunt. His sisters. Niall, Louis, Eleanor and Liam. No one had asked to be a part of Zayn’s other life, which is why his identity had always been so important to him. If the Chameleon didn’t know his true identity, no one would have to get hurt. Harry could’ve been alive.

—

The direction he’d normally take to get to Niall’s place is in clear sight, but Zayn knows he can’t go there. Not yet. The Chameleon’s smart, and by now he’d be staking out Niall’s condo just like all those times he followed Zayn whenever he was out doing his regular routine patrols around the city.

Zayn catches a ferry to Staten Island, with no destination in mind. He withdrew as much cash as he could at an ATM, and guesses he can find himself a cheap motel for the night. No one was following him this time, and he guesses the Chameleon’s off his tail. Nothing is ever certain.

Once he’s situated on the ferry, he takes the time to call Niall to let him know he’ll be out for a few days.

“It’s you,” Niall says when he picks up. The line had only rang twice.

“The Chameleon knows my identity.” Zayn sighs. “I can’t go back.”

“I know,” Niall answers. “He’s here.”

“Niall, you have to get out of there, now.” Zayn urges.

“I can’t, he’ll know.” Niall whispers. “Yeah, Mom, I’ll see you later.” Niall says over the phone, but louder. Zayn guesses the Chameleon is trying to listen in on Niall’s end.

“I have to go.” Niall tells him. “I love you. Tell everyone I said hi.”

Niall hangs up the phone before Zayn has a chance to say goodbye. Zayn hopes it doesn’t always have to end like this. No goodbyes, no chance to see each other one last time before god knows whatever is going to happen. Zayn is running out of ideas and things to do.

Worst case scenario, Niall ends up using the web shooters he gave him. They didn’t get around to much practicing using them yet, but Niall’s capable and can figure it out.

Zayn doesn’t know his way around Staten Island, but he remembers coming here as a kid with Harry. His parents used to take him to an Equestrian center, but Zayn can’t seem to remember the name of it. The number of horses in the area seem to be dwindling down, and less people are even interested. Since his parents died, Zayn can’t remember the last time he actually saw a horse that wasn’t pulling a carriage.

He manages to find a motel— or more of a bed and breakfast, for a steep $99 per night. Zayn could only withdraw so much from his account, and he’ll have to figure out a plan fast before he can make a move on the Chameleon, who seems to be a step ahead of Zayn at any given moment.

Zayn flops onto the bed when he finally gets assigned a room. He tries to stop his brain from repeating the last 24 hours or so in his head over and over. Zayn thought he was always on edge before, but now it’s almost consuming him entirely.

The place is a little too quiet for Zayn’s liking. Zayn wonders if the place is soundproof, because he can’t hear as much as he did in other places. He lets the white noise eat away at his thoughts. Zayn loses track of the amount of times he tosses and turns in bed, and by the time he’s finally comfortable he sees the sun beginning to peak through the curtains of the window.

Zayn gets up anyways, running on little to no sleep. He’s been on this schedule before, and Zayn wasn’t getting a lot of sleep back when he stayed at Niall’s. Whenever something is happening, Zayn can barely get a few hours of sleep before being thrust back into the city that keeps going 24 hours straight.

Breakfast is free, and Zayn’s pretty much the only guest. He’s joined by the owners, Wally and Amy. They’re a sweet old couple and try their best to make conversation with Zayn, but he’s too tired to make any effort. After he’s almost done with his breakfast, Amy tells him they have another guest around his age, and that he’ll be coming down soon if he wants someone to show him around the place.

Zayn cleans up after himself, and insists on washing his own dishes even though Amy told him he didn’t need to. He’s got to keep himself busy with something, or Zayn’s going to end up lost in his thoughts again for another sleepless night with zero ideas how to move forward.

When he’s done washing his dishes, the other guest Amy mentioned finally shows up. Zayn wipes his hands off and makes his way to introduce himself, until he realizes.

He already knows this person.

It’s Harry. _Real_ Harry.

He doesn’t look as cleaned up as the Chameleon did when he posed as Harry. Real Harry’s sporting a buzzcut. Zayn finds it odd, mostly because in high school Harry swore he’d never cut his hair that short. Zayn’s so relieved to find out that Harry’s actually alive, and not dead somewhere like the Chameleon had implied.

“I’m sorry, do I know you?” Harry asks.

“Harry, it’s me.” Zayn grabs his phone, and scrolls through his album to find a photo of them together. “Do you not remember?”

“I’m sorry, I—” Harry looks down at the picture, and he just looks even more confused. “I was lost here a few months ago. Amy and Wally found me.”

“Poor kid came in and couldn’t remember his own name.” Wally explains. “After a while we just started calling him Hayes, since he looks after the horses so well.”

“Horses?” Zayn asks.

“We own two.” Amy answers. “H— Harry has done a good job with them.”

“Always thought I looked like a Harry.”

“Do you really not remember me?” Zayn asks.

“I look at you, and it’s like I feel like I know you, but I can’t remember much.” Harry admits. “I remember being around horses as a kid, and another boy was there with me.”

“We used to come here together, with our parents.” Zayn tells him. “Do you remember that?”

“I—” Harry pauses. “Yeah, a little bit.”

Zayn begins to fill the gaps in Harry’s memories. There’s a bulk of his childhood that is still in there, somewhere, and Amy and Wally left them alone ages ago to talk. After a while, when Zayn tells him about his dad, Harry goes quiet. Harry goes off to take care of the horses, and Zayn follows closely behind to see what Amy and Wally meant earlier.

Their entire friend group always knew Harry had a rocky relationship with his father. Things were never good, but Harry always put on a face for everyone at school. Zayn remembers well from when they were children, and Zayn hated to admit he saw it coming when Anne left. Something must’ve happened that Zayn never knew about, because he knew Anne would have never left Harry with his father of her own will.

It was difficult to get Harry to open up. He’d always avoided the subject, and Zayn thinks that deep down Harry remembers something that he hasn’t told Zayn yet.

Harry invites him to the small stable, and teaches him how to handle the horses. It’s odd, being away from Niall, and the heart of the city where he’s out everyday risking his life. Zayn’s always loved animals. His aunt used to have a cat before he passed, and Niall was always thinking about getting a dog if they both didn’t have so much on their plate.

“I like it here,” Harry sighs wistfully. “Seems a whole lot better than whatever life I had before.”

“Normally I’d ask you to come back, and see our friends, but.” Zayn shakes his head. “There’s so much going on, I don’t think it’d be safe for you to go back.”

“For what it’s worth,” Harry says, looking over Zayn. “I appreciate what you’ve done for me.” Harry smiles, but Zayn can’t help but think this feels like a goodbye.

“I think you actually helped me out a lot today.” Zayn says in return. “Thanks, Harry.”

“Wait,” Harry says, grabbing Zayn’s hand. “Who you’re looking for. His name is Dmitri.”

“How did you—?”

Harry stops him, and takes a necklace out from where it was hidden under his shirt. A flash drive is dangling from the string, and Harry hands it over to Zayn.

“When I woke up in the fields around here, this was one of the only things they found on me.” Harry points at the flash drive. “When I finally got to a computer, I plugged it in and studied the file. For a while, I thought it was me.”

“I’m sorry, Harry.” Zayn reaches out, and puts his hand on Harry’s shoulder. “Really, thanks for everything.”

It sounds like a goodbye for now, but Zayn looks forward to better days to come.

—

When Zayn heads back to the bed and breakfast, he’s surprised to see Niall waiting for him by the door. The last 24 hours have been rough, and seeing Niall again gives him the tiniest bit of hope.

Before he tells Niall anything, Zayn has to make sure.

“Where was our first date?” He asks.

“The roof of Louis’ favorite chinese restaurant. Your golf course.” Niall answers.

“How did you—”

“The second he walked into my place it made my skin itch.” Niall replies. Zayn can see his hands shaking. “The way he looked, and even smiled…” Niall shakes his head. “I just knew it wasn’t you.”

“He didn’t follow you?”

“No,” Niall answers. “The next time he came around, I hit him with a baseball bat and tied him up in the kitchen. Then I left and got my security team to cover my tracks. He was gone by the time they got back, though.”

Zayn and Niall get settled in his room, and Zayn catches him up on the Harry situation. They both agreed they can’t take Harry back, unless he decides on his own that he really wants to. It’s Harry’s choice, after all.

Since Zayn busted his laptop during the Goblin attack, he was lucky enough that Niall thought to bring his, so the two can finally look at the flash drive that Harry had given Zayn earlier. There’s a lot of files and it’s going to be a long read, and for the next few hours, Zayn and Niall are huddled together reading on Niall’s small computer screen. Zayn’s able to skim through a lot, getting past the basic information. Harry already told him his name was Dmitri, and the files say he’s a covert spy and a master of disguise.

Niall had grown tired of reading as soon as Zayn reached the _experiments_ folder. It was a research report— just like the ones Zayn was used to reading and going through at work. The Chameleon had participated in an experiment that made his flesh malleable to give him the ability to change his appearance at will. There was just one catch. The Chameleon required a microcomputer belt to trigger his ability— or else he’d remain in his normal form.

Zayn had vaguely remembered the Chameleon’s belt. It had seamlessly disguised itself in the Goblin uniform, and could’ve been easily hidden under all his shirts when he posed as Harry. All Zayn has to do is get his hands on that belt, and it’s over. The Chameleon doesn’t get his payday, and Zayn’s friends and family will finally be safe.

No one in Zayn’s life had signed up for this. His own family didn’t even know about his double life, and Louis, Harry and Niall knowing has always put them at risk. Harry already had the worst of them all: Most of his memory gone, and his entire identity and fortune stolen simply because his own father still has that much power and influence.

He shuts the laptop off, and lays next to Niall on the bed. Niall’s already been asleep for hours, and Zayn finally shuts his eyes, knowing that he’ll be able to get some much needed rest. Most of his anxiety was focused around Niall’s safety, and now that he’s here at least Zayn has eased up a bit and drifts off to sleep.

—

Zayn wakes up hours later to the sound of his phone ringing. It went almost non-stop, and whoever was calling him had called three separate times in the past hour. He grabs his phone off the side table and finally answers the phone. It’s work.

“Zayn? Are you coming in next week?” His supervisor asks.

“I don’t know?” Zayn sighs. “My aunt had an emergency and left me to take care of my youngest sister.” Zayn says, lying on the spot.

“Bring her with you, because the boss wants to see you.” His supervisor tells him. “He wants to talk to you about the work you did on the camouflage improvements for the quinjets.”

“The _boss_?” Zayn asks in disbelief. “Actual, Mr. Stark, that boss?”

Before he can clarify what time he needs to come in, his supervisor hangs up and Zayn is still in disbelief. What he did at work wasn’t exactly groundbreaking and he wonders why Stark is even interested in the work of some intern at the bottom of the food chain.

“What was that?” Niall mumbles from under the covers.

“Work wants me to come in next week, something about meeting with Stark.” Zayn shrugs. “It could be the Chameleon trying to lure me back.”

“You should go.” Niall tells him.

“You’re kidding, right?” Zayn says, and falls back onto the pillows. “I’m an _intern_.”

“If the Chameleon’s expecting you, he doesn’t know that you know about him.” Niall explains. “You’ve got something on him now.”

“Niall, if we don’t plan this down to every last detail, he’s going to kill—” Zayn stops himself, not even wanting to finish that sentence out loud. His aunt, his sisters. Louis and Eleanor. Liam. Zayn can’t stomach the thought of losing more people.

“We can do this. _You_ can do this.” Niall sits up next to Zayn, and places his hand over Zayn’s own. “And you don’t have to do it alone.”

—

Niall and Zayn begin to plan and account for every possible scenario for next week. They went through more of the files on Dmitri and Zayn is able to find a way to filter out whatever knockout gas that the Chameleon used on him the last time they met. The more Zayn looks at the situation, he realizes that he can’t approach it the same way he does everything else. The Goblin, muggers, bank robbers— those are all head on. If Zayn wants a chance at catching the Chameleon at his own game, he has to play it the same way.

They get Louis in on the plan, and Eleanor is somewhat involved as well. She’s got connections with the _Bugle_ , but doesn’t exactly know the full details of what they’re doing. Zayn has a feeling that Eleanor always knew something, anyway. Liam’s not a part of the plan at all, having gone out of town to visit his parents in New Jersey. They have everything set in place— each of them all have a code. Questions and answers only they would know.

Zayn runs through the plan multiple times until he can recite it without even looking. Every moment has to be precisely exact, and he’s counting on the Chameleon being in the building when everything goes down at Stark Industries for the plan to work. When Zayn had time to think about it— Styles Industries was always neck and neck with Stark. It made sense that Desmond had planned something all along, long before the Goblin ever emerged.

“You’re thinking too much.” Niall says, resting a hand on Zayn’s shoulder. Zayn reaches for Niall’s hand and gives it a small squeeze.

“I wish we could go live somewhere far away and just take care of horses, or something.” Zayn says out loud, even though he doesn’t mean to. He thinks about Amy and Wally, perfectly content running their little bed and breakfast and thinks a life that simple could be nice.

“Horses?” Niall asks.

“It’s stupid.” Zayn laughs. “It’s how I imagine us when we’re old.”

“One day, maybe.” Niall grins. “You know, I’m rich enough to buy you a farm.”

“Alright, enough joking around,” Zayn says, throwing a pen at him. “Let’s get back to the plan.”

—

They finally both have enough down time for Zayn to teach Niall the ropes on using the web shooters. It’s a bit of a rushed crash course, and Zayn still remembers the time he nearly tore out the wall in his aunt’s apartment when he used them for the first time. The most important thing Zayn wants to teach Niall is how to use it if he’s falling.

It’s second nature to Zayn. He falls and swings through the city so easily, and he’s never had to think about it twice. It’s when he feels the most free— when most of his anxieties and the loud voice in his head is actually hushed, and the adrenaline rush always gives an extra kick.

They don’t have much of an area to practice, but Amy and Wally have a large storage barn that’s not currently in use, so it’ll make do for a quick run through.

“Ok,” Zayn breathes. He flicks his wrist, and shoots towards the wood panel above them in the barn. It’s strong, and steady, and Zayn gives the web a tug. “Try that.”

Niall follows, and does exactly what Zayn did, but it takes him a few times to hit the wood panel. His aim needs a lot of work.

“Maybe we should practice hitting empty soda cans first?” Zayn proposes.

“Agh.” Niall says, shooting up at the wood panel again. And again. And _again_.

“Just stay calm.” Zayn assures him, and takes hold of Niall’s wrist. “You’ll get it down.”

They take a break from trying to hit the wood panel, and do what Zayn suggested earlier. Empty soda cans. Aim’s the more important part here. If you can’t aim properly, and Zayn has definitely experienced this— you might just end up swinging into a wall. It’s also life and death, but Zayn can’t think about that right now. Training is always supposed to be fun.

After a few hours of practice, Niall finally gets better at his aim. Zayn would say he’s accurate about 90% of the time, and with more practice, he’ll get there. Zayn still remembers the first time he used his web shooters— with no practice, he ended up with a lot more bruises than ever.

“Now, just imagine that you’re on top of a building.” Zayn says, holding Niall’s wrist again.  

“How tall are we talking? Niall asks. “600 feet?”

“ _Tall_.” Zayn answers. Heights never seemed that bad to Zayn, and if he could only get that one damn night out of his mind, maybe he’d be less nervous than he was before. “You might not even need this, but it’s important.”

Niall doesn’t exactly reply, but his silence says a lot.

“We can take a break,” Zayn suggests.

“No, no,” Niall shakes his head. “No, I wanna get this down.”

“We can take a break.” Zayn repeats.

“I can’t—” Niall stutters. “What if I fall and you’re not there?”

“Then you have these.” Zayn replies, holding both of Niall’s hands. “You’ll get it down. I know you can.”

They sit in the barn for a while— Zayn loses track of time. Time almost doesn’t feel real, and they mostly in silence. Zayn has an arm around Niall’s shoulder, and if it weren’t for the fact they were brought together, and stuck in a barn because of the Chameleon, it almost felt like a normal vacation. A weekend getaway that normal couples do.

Zayn looks at Niall, and watches as Niall traces his fingers over the web shooters on his wrist. He gets lost in his thoughts, wondering what it would be like. If they were _normal_. If Zayn hadn’t got bitten by that spider. Zayn thinks it could be a nice life, but he prefers this one a lot more.

“I thought I lost you there for a minute,” Niall says, smiling up at Zayn.

“Lose me?” Zayn says back. “Never.”

—

The night before the big plan at Stark Industries, Zayn’s brain can’t seem to shut up and let him sleep. He stirs more than usual, and at this point Zayn’s given up on any chance of getting any sleep before the big showdown happens. Zayn sits up, and swings his legs to the side of the bed. He rests his elbows against his knees, and holds his head between his hands. Zayn sighs, and rubs his temples, wondering if he’ll ever be okay.

“Zayn.” Niall says, his voice barely above a whisper. Zayn can feel him behind him, and Niall’s hands are there, rubbing his shoulders gently in repeated motions.

“You know you’re on the line, too.” Zayn says quietly. It’d been a whole year and Niall was free of near death experiences. Until now. Back into the clutches of the city and all of Zayn’s complicated superhero mess.

“Nothing’s going to happen to me.” Niall assures him.

“You have to promise me that if anything goes wrong, you’ll leave without me.” Zayn recites, like he’s been reading the same script over and over. _Leave without me._

“I’m not going to leave. Not without you. It’s you and me.” Niall says back. “You and me, Zayn.”

The room goes silent, and Zayn lets himself get lost in the white noise again. Right now, he just wants to think about Niall, and maybe they’ll both die tomorrow, but Zayn will never know if he doesn’t try.

“We’ve wasted so much time not being together,” Zayn finally says out loud. “I’ve been spending the last few months thinking about how much you mean to me, and…” Zayn trails off. He’s never been one for speeches. “I love you. I’ve always loved you.”

“Zayn—”

“In high school I always thought you didn’t like me.” Zayn explains. “You were popular. Everyone wanted to be your friend. Your laugh was infectious.”

He doesn’t want to start crying, not right now, but Zayn needs to get this all out of his system before tomorrow happens. Zayn doesn’t want to have any regrets. He’s spent too much time thinking about the what ifs, and not enough thinking about the present and what he’s got right in front of him.

Wasted time. All those years in high school, the last year, and now. Zayn isn’t going to waste anymore time.

“I was shy.” Zayn smiles. “Then when I got bitten by that spider, and I had a lot of time to think about it, maybe I should stop waiting around for you and make the move myself.”

“You joined the newspaper,” Niall remembers. “For me.”

“You’re a lot stronger than I give you credit for.” Zayn admits. “It’s you and me. It’s not fair of me to limit your choices.”

Zayn and Niall have something unspoken after that. They’ve been through too much together, and after all the choices they’ve both made, it’s lead them here. Zayn always sees the bigger picture, but Niall’s the one who always notices the small details. They’re a _team_. They always have been, and they always will be.

—

He wakes up in the morning, startled and Zayn’s eyes shoot wide open. It’s the second time since he’s had a dream so vivid, and it felt more like a warning of something bad happening. It felt a lot similar to his heightened senses to danger, and something tells him he needs to take this dream seriously. Zayn shifts in the bed, turning over and sees that Niall had already left, as part of their plans. They’re all on radio silence, and Zayn intends on keeping the dream to himself— for now.

Zayn takes the ferry and makes his way back to meet at Stark tower. He actually had his lab coat on him, and he’s wearing his Spider-Man suit under all the fancy clothes Niall had got sent in for him with his meeting at work. Louis and Eleanor have been at the Stark building for hours now, under the false pretense of a press conference being held— that was ‘leaked’ by the _Bugle_ via Eleanor.

Zayn uses his normal entrance— through the main building, and scanning his own employee pass to make his way through security. The main lab where he works is below ground floor, and Zayn makes his way to the elevators. Just as he’s about to push a button, he’s stopped by a familiar looking security guard.

“Malik?” The security guard says, looking at Zayn’s name tag. “You’re wanted on the 15th floor.”

“Uh, thanks.” Zayn replies. He pushes the button going up, and enters the elevator as soon as it opens, pressing the button for the 15th floor.

Zayn starts thinking about the Chameleon— and his abilities. Zayn’s not entirely sure he’s unlocked his full potential and there might be more about himself he hasn’t figured out. He shakes himself out of it, going back to the plan. There’s too many important people at Stark tower in any given moment, Zayn guesses it’s the perfect time for the Goblin and the Chameleon to have had something planned.

The 15th floor is home to press conferences and guests. Zayn’s never been up here before, ever, as most of his clearance belongs to the below ground floor and on occasion, the cafeteria up on the 3rd floor if he’s up for it. The press conference room has glass windows, and Zayn spots the many reporters in the room, including Eleanor, with a _Bugle_ pass hanging around her neck. Zayn sees her as she taps on her pass three times, giving him the signal that she is who she says she is.

The press conference is due to begin in 15 minutes, and Zayn makes his way to the entrance. He’s stopped by another security guard who informs him that Mr. Stark is waiting to meet him in a private room. Zayn follows as he leads, and the room is just right next to the main event, filled with various arrangements of food and a few other high ranking Stark employees.

Zayn can feel the sweat at the back of his neck, and his nerves are starting to kick in. He’s never actually met the boss, and he doesn’t recognize the rest of the people in the room. As soon as Zayn gets closer to approaching Mr. Stark, he watches as the rest of the employees begin to file out of the room and make their way to the main press room.

“Mr. Malik.” Stark says, holding out a hand for Zayn to shake. “Pleasure to finally meet you.”

“You too, sir.” Zayn replies, and reaches out to shake Stark’s hand. It’s completely awkward, but the moment Zayn touches his hand, he just _knows_.

Zayn lunges forward, pinning Stark— or the Chameleon, he should say, against the wall behind him. Zayn’s holding his forearm to the Chameleon’s neck, and Zayn’s trying to find any indication of the computer belt that the Chameleon uses to trigger his ability.

“Security!” The Chameleon yells. “This kid’s gone nuts!”

The guards come piling in, and they come at Zayn’s sides, trying to get a grip on Zayn, but they back him and the Chameleon into the corner of the room.

“This isn’t the real Stark,” Zayn says, still holding the Chameleon from around the neck.

Before the guards can come any closer, Zayn finally spots it— the interesting looking watch on the Chameleon’s wrist. He had changed the belt into a watch. Zayn tries to reach for it, but the Chameleon ducks and releases himself from Zayn’s grip.

The Chameleon pulls a gun with a silencer out of his jacket, and proceeds to shoot down the security guards one by one.

Zayn rips off his lab coat, revealing his Spider-Man suit underneath and pulls his mask on. Zayn didn’t account for a gun, but he’s pretty good at improvising. He just wishes he had another upper hand on the Chameleon.

“I knew you couldn’t resist coming back to the city.” The Chameleon says, pointing his gun at Zayn. “Didn’t think it’d be that easy to lure you back here.”

“It’s over, Dmitri.” Zayn replies. He’s about to shoot a web, but the back wall behind them begins to open— like a curtain, revealing the entire press room.

The crowd sees the Chameleon— still disguised as Stark, holding a gun pointed towards Zayn. The press photographers begin rapidly taking photos, and Zayn sees Eleanor duck out of the room from the corners of his eyes.

Zayn manages to web away the gun from the Chameleon, and the two engage in hand to hand combat. The Chameleon seems to control the fight, and Zayn blocks punches before he can throw them back. He’s aiming for the wrist, and the Chameleon is clever— but Zayn manages to get a hand around it.

“It can’t be deactivated that easily,” The Chameleon snarls.

“We’ll see,” Zayn snaps back. He tightens his grip on the Chameleon’s wrist, and Zayn can feel a shock of energy radiate from his hand. It shocks the Chameleon’s wrist like a taser, and the watch is fried.

Zayn watches as the Chameleon reverts back to his original form— a blank, white faceless mask.

The reporters in the room audibly gasp— and the Chameleon launches another punch at Zayn’s face. The Chameleon releases another small amount of knockout gas, but Zayn came prepared this time, modifying his suit and mask enough to filter it out and hold his breath. The Chameleon doesn’t know that, though, and Zayn pretends to knock out for a few minutes, allowing the Chameleon to think that he’s escaped.

After he gets up, Zayn finally tests the communications link in his suit.

“What’s the status?” Zayn asks.

“Chameleon’s making his way down to the ground floor,” Niall replies. “Me and Louis have disabled the elevators and doors, there’s no way he’s getting out.”

“Eleanor got out in time, right?” Zayn asks nervously. He doesn’t need someone getting hurt because of any mistakes made today.

“She’s out, across the building.” Louis replies. “We’re good to go.”

Zayn makes his way down the staircase as fast as he can to catch up with the Chameleon. He’s forced to run, given the structure of the staircase— he can’t jump or use any of his webs. Zayn can hear the Chameleon a few floors below, and Zayn tries to match his pace to catch up. Zayn looks down at his hands, trying to figure out how he’d managed to shock the Chameleon’s watch.

“If I have any other powers, please show up today.” Zayn says out loud.

“What was that?” Niall asks over the comms.

“I have a new power? I think?” Zayn replies. “I blasted the watch with some sort of electric shock.”

“That’s definitely a new one.” Niall says back. “By the way, we just got an alert someone entered the basement.”

Zayn follows, and reaches the basement labs. This isn't in the same area as he works, but a floor or two below. It’s quiet, as most employees have gotten wind of what happened on the 15th floor and most of them are on the main floor for lockdown protocols.

He analyzes his surroundings, and Zayn’s always had a light tread. The Chameleon could attack him at any moment, and Zayn backs himself against the walls to make sure he doesn’t get attacked from behind. He stands there for a few minutes, and that’s when Zayn notices something wrong with his hands.

Zayn can see through them— he doesn’t understand how, or why, but he’s somehow able to camouflage to his surroundings.

He finally spots the Chameleon in the lab chambers, and Zayn can’t see what he’s doing. Zayn sneaks up behind him, and this time Zayn has the upper hand. Zayn quickly wraps his arm around the Chameleon’s neck, and finally rips off the white mask.

“Please don’t kill me.”

“What?” Zayn replies. He turns the man around, and instead of the actual Chameleon— it’s a Stark employee. “The Chameleon—where is he?” Zayn asks the guy.

“I didn’t see him. He told me to wait here with the mask or else I’d die with everyone in the building.” The guy replies.

“What do you mean?” Zayn asks.

“He said he had the building wired. Everything will be gone in 15 minutes.”

“Niall? Louis?” Zayn asks over the comms. “Are you still there?”

“I’m here,” Louis replies, sounding rough. “Nearly got knocked out.”

Zayn reverts his attention back to the Stark labs employee, and unties the ropes that were wrapped around his wrists and ankles. Zayn leads him back up to the main floor, with all hope gone. The Chameleon got away for real, and Zayn has to evacuate a building full of people.

There’s a group of guards surrounding the doors and elevators, and Zayn has no other way of catching the Chameleon now. This was his escape plan. If the Chameleon got exposed, there would be no way for him to leave the building unless he caused something else to evacuate the building.

“We need to evacuate.” Zayn tells the guard.

“They haven’t caught the Stark impersonator yet,” The security guard says, motioning towards the front door. “No one leaves.”

“The Chameleon,” Zayn explains. “He set up the building. If we don’t get everyone out in 15 minutes, the place is gonna blow.”

The guard looks at him, hesitant. As if he can’t be 100% sure Zayn is the real Spider-Man. Zayn gets it, the paranoia has already begun after the reveal. Zayn already deactivated the Chameleon’s ability to shift for the time being, but not everyone had the same access to that knowledge.

“Alright.” The guard nods. “We’ll start evacuating.”

Zayn goes to the upper floors to check and make sure if the rest of the guards got the message, there shouldn’t be that many of them, but Zayn can always make a quick exit out of a window if he really needs to.

“Someone, talk to me.”

“We’re out, we’re out.” Louis says, sounding exhausted. “I just hauled Niall out, we’re with Eleanor.”

The last guard starts running down the stairs, and Zayn follows after. All of the employees and press are already outside the building, and it’s just the last few of them left behind who stayed to make sure the building was clear.

No one seemed to spot the Chameleon. After all, a photo of his real face was never included in the file. Zayn read the entire thing backwards and forwards, and Zayn’s not even sure if his own family knows what his real face looks like.

There’s two minutes to go, and Zayn helps the guards rush people further away from the building. They haven’t got any clue what type of explosives the Chameleon lined the building with, but it’s a safe bet to get as far away from the building as possible to prevent people from getting hurt, or even worse— killed.

Zayn’s back is turned, helping people get as far away from the building as he can. There’s no way anyone could’ve prepared for it. The blast radius is just enough to knock Zayn off his feet, and his ears ring in and out— just like during a Goblin explosion.

He manages to get up, feeling slightly disoriented. People are running in every direction and it’s hard for Zayn to navigate through the crowd to even find the rest of his friends. Zayn starts walking forward, getting bumped from side to side from the crowd. Zayn begins to think everyone’s gone, but Louis grabs his arm and pulls him aside.

“Zayn? He—” Louis says, speaking over the noise of the crowd. “I think we lost Niall.”

“I thought he was with both of you?” Zayn asks. “What happened?”

“We lost him when the building blew,” Louis admits. “There was too many people rushing by, he could’ve been taken.”

“Thought you could get away, Zayn?” The Chameleon says over the comms. Louis nearly tears his earpiece out, but Zayn gets him to keep listening in.

“Where is he?” Zayn asks.

“We’re on the roof.” The Chameleon replies. “No trouble getting here with that glider I kept around.”

“There’s no _roof_ left.” Louis shouts into his earpiece.

“God,” Zayn gasps. He wants to rip out his earpiece, but it’s embedded into his suit. “I know which roof they’re talking about.”

Zayn takes off, leaving Eleanor and Louis behind on the street. Zayn launches himself—almost like a slingshot from building to building, searching for his destination.

He wanted to forget where the building where his last confrontation with the real Goblin was. It was obvious. The one thing he couldn’t seem to put behind him, and the one place where the Goblin knew where it’d hurt him the most, and the Chameleon took him back there.

The night Zayn wanted to forget. The night that kept Zayn up for months, replaying in his head over and over again like clockwork. The memories that were so bad that Zayn barely even slept anymore, and the guilt piled on him even more the more time passed by.

Zayn’s heart is racing, and every passing moment he feels a real fear that this could be the end of everything.

There’s nothing special or remarkable about this high rise. It’s not even in a particularly busy area, but the significance and the timing is where it hits Zayn the hardest. He lands onto the roof of the building with a hard thump, and the Chameleon turns around to face him.

The Chameleon has Niall, with one arm solidly wrapped around Niall’s shoulder, and the other hand holding a knife against his neck.  

It all feels too similar. The Chameleon speaks, but Zayn doesn’t process it. He focuses on his own breathing, and he glances at Niall’s wrist. Zayn locks eyes with Niall, and nods. There was no amount of practice that they could ever put into a situation like this. Zayn can only close his eyes and hope for the best.

“One wrong move and he’s dead,” The Chameleon yells.

“I was already dead, anyway.”

Before the Chameleon can react, Niall jams his elbow into the Chameleon’s stomach, causing him to drop the knife. Niall gets grazed, but it’s nothing he can’t handle. The Chameleon fights back, and Niall is inching closer towards the edge of the building.

Zayn makes his move, shooting his webs out to capture the Chameleon. The webbing attaches right onto both of the Chameleon’s wrists, and Zayn begins to pull him back. He can still see Niall struggling.

The Chameleon manages to grab at the webs, yanking them forward, and Zayn falls face flat. He manages to recover quickly, but Zayn sees that the Chameleon managed to grab a hold of the knife in the struggle. The webs are cut off, and before Zayn can even react, the Chameleon throws his knife towards Niall, who’s only a few steps behind.

The knife seems to move in slow motion, and Zayn just barely manages to catch it with a web before catching it himself and throwing it to the other side of the roof.

The Chameleon doesn’t give up, and this time he grabs Niall, and launches them both off the side of the building. Zayn holds his breath. If they did things right, Zayn hopes that all the planning— every last detail, from the press conference, the fake-out, wasn’t all for nothing. The Chameleon wasn’t going to get away, not that easily. Zayn still had a few tricks up his sleeve.

Zayn stands over the ledge, and Niall’s there, hanging just by a _thread_. It worked. For a second Zayn could’ve sworn his heart stopped beating. Zayn falls down to his knees, and tugs on the web, using whatever strength he has left to pull Niall up.

“I hate you for suggesting this,” Zayn breathes out, and rips his mask off his face.  

“Did I mention how much I hate heights?” Niall laughs, pulling himself closer to Zayn. “I really thought I was going to die.”

“Did you really have to say that earlier?” Zayn asks.

“Well, he had to think he had something on us.” Niall laughs again. “At least we got him hanging.” Niall says, motioning towards the edge of the building. The Chameleon was dangling off one of the webs, and Zayn had no intention of pulling him up any time soon.

“I love you.”

“But?” Niall says, flashing Zayn an all too knowing grin.

“I’d prefer it if we never had to do anything like that again.” Zayn laughs. He presses his forehead against Niall’s, and takes a deep breath. “I love you.” Zayn repeats.

“I know.” Niall doesn’t waste his time, and presses his lips to Zayn’s.

—

There was one last thing Zayn still needed to do. He has the drive Harry had given him back on Staten Island, and there was no way that they were going to keep this information to themselves. They’ve got their in with the _Bugle_ , now he just needs Eleanor to run it.

The _Bugle_ has the exclusive on the Chameleon. They expose his name, his story, everything about him is out in the open now. No one knows his motives yet, but they all pushed for the same narrative. He’s been working covertly with various Styles Industries higher-ups who wanted to see Stark go down. Desmond gets caught on confession he’d paid him off with the promise of receiving Harry’s inheritance. There was also a plan in motion to break Desmond out of jail, but that had all vanished the moment the Chameleon ratted out his plans.

The Chameleon got sent back to Russia, no longer under the responsibility of US custody. At least there was an entire ocean between them, and the paranoia would soon disappear from everyone’s lives.

When everything was finally over— Harry never returned to Staten Island. Zayn knew he ended up calling Louis and Eleanor, letting him know that he was okay, even though he didn’t have all of his memory back.

After all the chaos, and one not-so-covert mission, Zayn’s almost back where he started. He’s going back to school, and is still selling Spider-Man photos to Jameson— only he’s decided to take up his offer on being a staff photographer, after what happened to his former internship. Zayn figures it’s only temporary, anyways.

* * *

#  6 MONTHS LATER

* * *

 

It’s February now, and Zayn’s second year, second semester at Empire State University. Zayn’s already gone through most of his introduction classes, and barely starting to get into the heavy work of his major. Zayn sits in his class, absentmindedly tapping his pencil against his notebook. He doesn’t know why he even bothers bringing one, when most of his notes are on his laptop anyways.

It was Valentine’s Day, and Zayn had spend most of the day ignoring all the flyers on campus, various couples and dodging all the people hanging around in red who looked like they were trying to ask him on a date. In all his time at Empire State, there was always a few people in his major who always suspected Zayn’s boyfriend wasn’t _real_ , or that he couldn’t possibly be dating Niall Horan.

He’s gone on a tour— Zayn can’t remember where. It’s here and there every night, and Zayn knows Niall’s due for a small break soon, but the dates are muddled with his final exam schedule.

Class is about to end, and Zayn goes ahead and shoves his headphones into his ears before he has to hear endless complaints from his seatmate about how difficult it is to do a lab practical. Zayn ducks out of the lecture hall as fast as he can, and once he’s out, he’s finally free from school for the day.

Zayn doesn’t stick around on campus that often. He’s usually far too busy to hang around campus, and grab a coffee with a friend from class. He’s got photos to edit, and has to swing around a few places before he heads back home, as per usual. There’s no rush today though, and Zayn thinks he might enjoy the walk back. It was still a little too cold for Zayn’s liking, but February was starting to get decent enough that Zayn almost found himself longing for summer.

He gets caught in a daydream, wondering if he’ll be able to actually have a summer vacation at all, and not one filled with paranoia. For once, Zayn just wanted to feel like a normal college student for a few seconds.

“Hey,” A voice calls, and suddenly Zayn has a hand over his eyes. “Guess who?”

“I thought you said we weren’t going to do Valentine’s Day.” Zayn says, trying not to smile when he turns around.

“ _You_ said it, but I thought it’d be better if I came with a surprise.” Niall smiles, and greets Zayn with a quick peck on the lips.

“A surprise?” Zayn audibly gasps, playing it up for Niall. “Will _Thor_ be there?”

“The surprise is me.” Niall huffs. “Your loving, now blonde again, busy tour schedule _boyfriend_.”

“But seriously, what’s the surprise?” Zayn asks, now a bit more excited.

“Do you remember that bed and breakfast?”

“The one from—” Zayn nods. “Yeah.”

“I bought one!” Niall says excitedly, showing Zayn a photo on his phone. “Obviously, it’s not the same one. There’s horses, since you mentioned and all—”

“You did not buy me a farm.” Zayn says, grabbing onto Niall’s phone, flipping through as many pictures as he can. “How many animals live here? How is this a bed and breakfast?”

“Okay, slow down,” Niall laughs, grabbing his phone back from Zayn’s reaches. “We’ll have plenty of time to visit it in the spring.”

“The spring?” Zayn frowns. “I thought this was a Valentine’s Day surprise.”

“It is.” Niall replies. “But I have other plans first.”

“Actually, we might have to hold that thought.” Zayn frowns again. “I gotta go.”

The police sirens start sounding off in the distance— and Zayn doesn’t know what it is this time. There had been talk around the streets that there was a new villain in town, and Zayn has a feeling most of them are right.

“Valentine’s day,” Zayn sighs. “It had to be today?”

“Just go out there and do your thing,” Niall says, giving Zayn’s hand a slight squeeze. “I’ll see you at home.”

“Home,” Zayn smiles, and squeezes Niall’s hand back. “I like the sound of that.”

**Author's Note:**

> -implied minor character death  
> -selling of guns/weapons  
> -descriptions of violence and blood but nothing too graphic
> 
> feel free to say hi on [tumblr](http://niallshoran.tumblr.com/)! :)


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